Bite Me
by Puke and Glitter
Summary: It was supposed to be an insult, not an invitation. Stupid Elena and her stupid vampire boyfriends. (Undecided OC pairings) [Klaroline]
1. Pilot

**And the first chapter has finally been written! Behold, my most hated plot-bunny!**

**Seriously though, I have been addicted to Vampire Diaries for _ages_ now and have wanted to write something for it for a while now but have never got a decent enough idea. I've read a few and didn't want to make it _exactly_ like the others, so whilst this episodes a bit iffy (And took a helluva lot of time to write it, have you seen the size of it?) - I think the next one will be better as my character gets to play about a little more. I do want you to let me know what you think though. **

**Disclaiming Vampire Diaries.**

* * *

_Dear Diary,_

_A lot of shit has gone down since I first wrote in you- I think was I was thirteen. Well, I'm a big girl now and have to cope with the shit adults put up with every day._

_My parents died... and somehow I can't blame Elena for it. I mean... it was her fault, but we're twins. We are like ying and yang, and though we're fraternal I refuse to believe that we are any less close than other twins and we don't do that to each other. _

_Everything just sucks, majorly. _

_I don't know how to put it any other way because there's just this little ball of hate that I want to let loose, to say what everyone else is thinking but I never will. The waterworks haven't stopped yet, all I want is my Mom and her cuddles when I was upset, dad with his mandatory tub of ice cream whenever he saw one of us in tears whether that be Mom, me, Elena or even Jenna. But I have to go without them, so I was stupid and I started up smoking and drinking again, y'know, as a way to cope. Once or twice, Aunt Jenna joined me for a cig on the porch. Yeah... Aunt Jenna's looking after us now, she was always my favourite Auntie but there's not much competition with John, who btw is not as bad as everyone says. But that's my own opinion._

_It's weird, without Mom or Dad. Jer's put away his sketchbook and I know he's hooked up with Vicki Donovan a couple of times and not to mention the drugs. Elena's like a living, breathing shell of what she was. She hasn't left the house all summer and just writes in her diary. I admit, I'm not really the person to judge since I've tried ignoring all of Caroline's calls and her texts, but when a teary-eyed blonde shows up on your porch? It's kind of hard to ignore. So instead of shutting her out, Caroline's been helping me get better. We've had so many sleepovers that Aunt Jenna even offered Caroline her own set of keys to the house (That she totally took, btw). I feel better though, because Caroline listened to me when I couldn't talk to Elena about it- because she'd burst into tears._

_Caroline's not the best listener but she was there for when it counted, she wrapped me in my blanket, made us hot chocolate and we proceeded to watch horror movies until we clung to one another in our sleep. Liz has been great help as well, she hasn't said a word about the amount of time I spend at their house- though Liz did offer me some lessons on how to shoot a gun (Yeah, weird but I had fun surprisingly). _

_But tomorrows the first day of school, and whilst Care's been getting me all pepped up for coming back- I just wanted to go to bed and sleep the year away._

_It can only get better, or I hope. Knowing my luck though, I doubt it._

_Now, I'm gonna put this diary away and look back at it at the end of the year- maybe things will be different;_

_**Vanessa Gilbert,**_

* * *

_Sleep was good, sleep was nice. Aunt Jenna was the enemy _Vanessa thought to herself hazily as she snuggled deeper into the caves of cover- enjoying the smell of the clean sheets and the warmth of the sun shining down on her face.

"Nessie! Wake up, you're gonna be late!" Aunt Jenna called through the door, sighing under her breath when she heard a soft snore- this was just like her. She'd probably unplugged her alarm clock as well, and Jenna had a presentation right about, she glanced at her watch with a grimace, now. Elena was up and at it, heck even Jeremy was moving about at this time even if all he did was grunt at people to make them move out of his way but he was a teenager- it was a fluent language of grunts.

Opening her nieces bedroom door, she found herself smiling at the familiar way she was tucked up into the covers, her mop of hair barely visible from the disgusting floral bed covers she insisted on keeping. Jenna manoeuvred round the dirty clothes that scattered the floor, grimacing at the empty box of pizza that was left by the foot of her bed from the last time she had Caroline come over.. Ah yes, the troublesome blonde that practically lived in their house now- Jenna could have sworn she saw some of Caroline's clothes in the washing basket as well. It was like a minefield of teenage waste, and Jenna used to live in this mess 24/7? No wonder she drove her mother up the wall with her mess. Sighing again, Jenna turned to Vanessa and gently pulled down the cover, laughing when her nieces lip curled up into a pout as she tried to wriggle back into the warmth.

"Up and at 'em Vanessa, first day of school!" Jenna chirped, obnoxiously happy just to make her point that it was morning and she needed to be awake.

"No," Vanessa groaned, trying to yank the covers out of Jenna's grip when her Aunt ripped the cover away from her body entirely- Vanessa's body seized up at the chill, her eyes opening blearily at her aunt and hissing in a similar way a cat did. "No, Jenna, no!"

Elena chose that moment to walk in, rolling her eyes at her older sister and joining Jenna in attempts to get her out of her bed; in fact, Elena could empathize with Vanessa for once. All she wanted to do was drag herself back to bed, she didn't know if she'd be able to deal with all the sympathetic looks and pitying words she'd get. So instead of agreeing with her sister and flopping onto her bed like she wanted to do, Elena walked over to her wardrobe and chucked a pair of leggings at her sisters head along with a shirt.

Vanessa watched her sister with a bleary glare.

"Traitor."

"Get up," Elena said, rolling her eyes with a smile. It was familiar, and all that was missing was when Mom came through the door in her purple dressing gown, completely enabling Vanessa by laying in bed with her eldest child and the two of them pretending to sleep to annoy Elena. Jeremy would walk past and roll his eyes, throwing one of those sponge balls at them and eventually Mom would nudge Vanessa out of bed to get dressed and go to school. Then Mom would continue to snooze in Vanessa's bed until it was time for them to go, when she'd miraculously be dressed to give them a kiss before they walked out the door.

Elena's throat seized up, _I'm fine, thank you but I'm feeling much better_, that's what she repeated to herself. She would do it as many times as it took before she believed them, no point being the sad little girl any more. She caught Vanessa's eye, the older girl giving her a knowing glance that made Elena gulp- repeating her previous words, she quickly left the room to go and grab the last of the coffee with Jenna hot on her heels. Vanessa watched them go before flopping onto her back, arms and legs stretched out with her eyes focused on the ceiling where her favourite band posters laid.

First day of school.

The first of many, in fact there would be a years worth. _Surprisingly_.

Grunting, she got out of her bed and hopped in the shower quickly enough, putting on her clothes and slipping a red beanie on to mask the bed head she really couldn't be bothered taming. She paused for a moment and reached into her wardrobe, pulling out the old leather jacket that he dad had given her.

"_It was a long time ago," Grayson said as he pulled out the leather jacket, watching Vanessa's lips twitch upwards into an amused smile"but there once was a time where I was cool."_

"_Sure you were Dad," Vanessa said, rolling her eyes but taking the leather jacket either way, it had been worn down and was soft as butter, bigger than what she usually wore but not big enough to swamp her completely. She stroked the patches sown across the front, Joan Jett, Sex pistols, Guns 'n Roses. Vanessa stared at it in quiet awe before slipping it on over her t-shirt and Grayson just leant over to adjust the collar._

"_There we go, my little rocker," he said fondly, ruffling her hair and laying a tender kiss on her forehead._

Breaking out of her memories, she put the jacket on once again and fiddled with the collar absent-mindedly like her dad had once done before putting on her boots and walking out her bedroom door and down the stairs. She half expected her mom and dad to be there, chatting with Aunt Jenna and there was a stab of disappointment as Elena stood there alone with her mug of coffee.

Jeremy brushed past her without a second glance, stealing Elena's mug as Aunt Jenna rushed around the room.

"First day of school and I'm totally unprepared. Lunch money?" Jenna said holding out, a wad of money as Vanessa walked into the kitchen. She took half of it without a second glance, chucking the rest at Jeremy who gave her a brief nod of acknowledgement. Vanessa wandered over and grabbed the second mug of coffee Elena was making for herself, snickering under her breath at her sisters annoyed expression but really couldn't care, she never put enough sugar in it... or cream. Bitter coffee, blugh, nasty.

"I'm good " Elena told the only parental authority figure they had.

"Anything else? A number two pencil? What am I missing?" Jenna said and Vanessa could only watch her get herself into a state. Vanessa just smiled at her though.

"We're fine, go on. You got that big presentation don't you?" Vanessa stated, pouring inordinate amounts of cream and sugar into her coffee under the disapproving glare that was Elena's entire personality today. Jeremy was doing the same, his hands reaching for the sugar which Vanessa kept out of his reach. He tried to go for it once or twice but she just kept moving it out of his reach, laughing when he sighed under his breath.

" I'm meeting with my thesis advisor at...now. Crap!" Jenna said, pulling her hair out of her bun and running her fingers through it so it didn't look like she had just come back from teenage hell. Vanessa grabbed Jenna's purse off of the counter and chucked it at her, Jenna giving her a thankful smile as she pressed a kiss against Vanessa's cheek and went to do the same to Jeremy only for him to shy away from her.

"Then go. We'll be fine. " Elena said, smiling at her as she walked out the door with a worried glance at the trio of teenagers that were the last of her family. As the front door shut, there was an awkward moment of silence which Vanessa couldn't stand. They had been so close at one point and it killed her that they were slowly breaking- further and further away. She could use a crappy simile to get her point across but when Jeremy snapped at Elena for just asking if he was okay. She decided that no simile could match how her family was breaking apart. Elena glanced over at her with a tiny smile.

"You okay?"

"Fuzzy like a peach," Vanessa said happily, scarily like how Jenna had woken her up this morning but then again she'd had coffee. Maybe that wasn't a good idea, Elena thought to herself as she slowly slid the mug away from her sister. Elena couldn't help her smile growing though because Vanessa was working through it, she tried to ignore the pack of cigarette's which she knew her sister kept hidden in her bra or the bottle of Jack Daniels which was miraculously refilling itself every few weeks. The was a quiet ping and both of them went scrambling for their phones, Vanessa reaching hers first and jumping with glee. "Caroline's here, see you at school!"

* * *

"You are an angel," Vanessa said to Caroline as she climbed into her car, the blonde passing her the usually vanilla frappé with cream.

"Tell me something I don't know," Caroline said as they pulled away, waving at Bonnie who pulled up just as they left. Vanessa snorted and started fiddling with Caroline's radio before giving up and plugging in her i-pod, letting the swing music chill her down and then some. The frappé was doing wonders and she was so glad that Caroline remembered to ask for some chocolate sprinkles in there as well. "Excited about school?"

_Cue deadpan look_.

"Okay, I get it, stupid question," Caroline muttered, her eyes glancing at my shirt before her eyes went back to the road. then flickering back to her shirt and the road once again "Is that _my_ shirt?"

"Was at my house, so nope." Vanessa said, drinking her drink happily as she avoided Caroline's gaze.

"Pretty sure it is."

"Your shirt has an evil twin, and that evil twin likes me better." Vanessa with a faint sting of amusement shot through her, grinning at Caroline who just rolled her eyes.

"Two evils don't make an angel though,"

"That's why you're here, balance me out Caroline. We're like a see-saw of good and evil." Vanessa said, taking another sip of her frappé before she threw her head back and laughed maniacally. Caroline just laughed _at_ her though, the keyword being _at_ not _with_.

"No more coffee for you." Caroline said, quoting their favourite childhood movie- _Lilo & Stitch_.

"Rude," Vanessa muttered with a smile as they pulled up outside of school in the nick of time to be one of the first there. "Why do we always have to be one of the first here?"

"Why not?" Caroline retorted as the two of them got out of the car, Vanessa fumbled around with her bag as she slammed the door shut; her frown anything but serious and Caroline knew it. The downfalls of being so close to someone, Vanessa swore that Caroline could practically read her mind sometimes.

"Don't answer my question with another question."

"Don't question me." Caroline said back with a triumphant raise of her neatly plucked eyebrows, how Vanessa wished she had waxed both of them off as of now- the amount of trust Caroline had for her was astounding if she didn't think she wouldn't give into temptation to rip one of those pretty little eyebrows out. The blonde noticed her gaze at her eyebrows and frowned. "I'm so not giving you my tweezers next time."

Vanessa just shrugged and followed Caroline into school, sipping that nice cool frappé on the way in.

They said 'Hi' to whoever they noticed on their way in, Vanessa had to admit she didn't remember knowing this many people until she had forgotten about half of them during summer vacation.

"Elena. Oh, my god." Caroline said all of a sudden, flying towards her twin and bringing into what Vanessa liked to call the Forbes Back Breaker. She was surprisingly strong for someone so thin and... well, Caroline. Elena's eyes were bulging slightly as Caroline hugged her- Bonnie and Vanessa watching with little sympathy from the sidelines. They all had to endure the Forbes Back Breaker at some point in their life, and Elena's was today.

"How are you? Oh, it's so good to see you. How is she? Is she good?" Caroline asked Vanessa as she pulled away from Elena; Vanessa just frowned.

"You didn't ask how I was?"

"Yeah but I know you better than I know you better than I know my way around the mall."

"Fair enough."

**"**Caroline," Elena said, catching the blondes attention once again "I'm right here. And I'm fine. Thank you."

**"**Really?"

**"**Yes. Much better."

"Oh, you poor thing." Caroline said as she hugged Elena once again but Vanessa was in her own world at this point- she waved to Beth, who was part of the cheersquad. Which was another thing entirely. Caroline had told her all about Cheer camp since both of them decided to forgo it, but she had ears on the inside via the lovely Dana. Who was heading straight for her with tupperware meals and a pitying look.

"Abort, abort," Vanessa muttered to herself as she started to walk away and turned around a corner abruptly, heading for the closest toilets. Caroline left floundering for a moment as Dana approached her. Vanessa poked her head around the corner and sighed in relief as Caroline seemed to keep her distracted, turning around she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when seeing an enraged Elena walk in a few minutes later pinning a frustrated looking Jeremy to the bathroom sink. So leaning back, she opened the door once again and grimaced at the sign of the men's toilets.

Caroline would never let her live this one down.

**"**Great. It's the first day of school and you're stoned." Elena complained.

"No, I'm not." Jeremy denied but really, did he think he could pull a fast one with Elena the Hawk?

"Where is it? Is it on you?" Elena asked, beginning to pat Jeremy down which Vanessa thought was completely inappropriate- still it was a tiny bit funny to watch.

"Stop, all right?! You need to chill yourself, all right?"

"Chill myself? What is that, stoner talk? Dude, you are so cool."

"Look, stop! I don't have anything on me. Are you crazy?"

"You haven't seen crazy, Jeremy! I gave you a summer pass, but I am done watching you destroy yourself. No, no, no, you know what? Go ahead. Keep it up. But just know that I am going to be there to ruin your buzz every time, you got it? Jeremy, I know who you are. And it's not this person. So don't be this person." She heard Elena say to Jeremy, the whole judgement thing being passed on and no doubt it was the combination of being back at school and everyone's pitying words which had Elena so wired about everything.

"Yeah, be boring instead. You know, nod at peoples pity and try to completely move on," Vanessa said drily, folding her arms over her chest as she leaned on the wall- grabbing her siblings attention as she sent an apologetic glance at a guy that was obviously uncomfortable with them there, as he was leaving. She turned her eyes back to her siblings and smiled widely, shrugging her shoulders. "That's what Elena's doing."

"What are you doing in here, Nessa?"

"Running from Dana and her tupperware meals." Vanessa admitted with a guilty look.

"I don't need this." Jeremy sighed, heaving off of the sink and walking past Vanessa, sparing her one of his rare smiles as he passed her. She crinkled her nose at him though.

"Seriously though, spray some deodorant before you go to class at least Jer," Vanessa said jokingly, laughing when he nudged her playfully. Once he was gone, she turned around and glanced at Elena, whose doe eyes were both angry and disappointed. The deadly duo, Vanessa thought with an internal cringe. Elena seemed to give up for the moment though, throwing her hands up in frustration and heading for the door. Where Elena almost walked into the perfect guy- no literally, he had the prettiest face in all of Mystic High. She was pretty sure he was new, there was no way Caroline would have missed him if he had gone to their school last year.

"Uh, pardon me. Um... is this the men's room?" He asked, though Vanessa could see how amused he was about this- or maybe he just liked it that Elena got all embarrassed and flushed bright red. She was a big fan of that as well.

**"**Yes. Um, I was just, Um—I was just—It's a long story..." Elena stuttered,

"Thank you." Elena muttered as he moved to the side to let her past, vanessa following behind her though she turned around to the guy once she had walked past; he had this funny look in his eye as he looked at them both but Vanessa just winked at him.

"She's single, y'know." She whispered before laughing and running to catch up with her sister and possibly find out where Caroline had run off to.

* * *

"Miss Gilbert, I hope you remembered that this is history- not art," Mr Tanner said, glaring down at Vanessa as she pulled her eyes away from whatever she had been doodling on her paper. With a sheepish smile she turned the page and began to take proper notes like they were supposed to be doing. "Back onto topic; our home state of Virginia joined confederacy in 1861, it created a tremendous amount of tension within the state. People in Virginia's northwest region had different ideals than those from the traditional deep south. Then Virginia divided in 1863 with the northwest region joining the union."

Really, Tanner should have made it more interesting to learn about because instantly vanessa found herself doodling in the magrins again before her eyes wandered around the room- catching sight of the newbie, Steven or whatever his name had been, making eyes at Elena and her doing the same right back at him. Pulling out her phone, Vanessa quietly sent a text to Bonnie.

"_think the new guy has a thing for elena?_"

"_totes_" Bonnie replied, sending her a grin.

* * *

"I'm... going to see Mom and Dad," Elena said at the end of the day, once they had gotten through the lessons and pitying looks from teachers, the glares from Mr Tanner, the false sympathy form everyone else, though it was more of a question- asking her if she wanted to go with her but Vanessa just shook her head with a smile.

"You go ahead, I'm going to walk home. Caroline has committee duties for a while but then we're all meeting at the Grill, kapeesh?"

"Yeah, see you later." Elena said, waving her hand and heading in the direction of the cemetery. Vanessa waved back but when Elena was a reasonable distance away from her the arm was dropped with a sigh, she was flat out exhausted. So many people, so much pity, it was overwhelming. Dana had tried to hand her the tupperware meals but she'd accidentally left on the table when she went to classes after lunch. Tanner had practically been the only one, other than Bonnie and Caroline, that hadn't expressed their sympathies for her. So she was kind of glad to be on her own, just her, the sidewalk and her i-pod. She could even dance a little without Elena scolding her for embarrassing the two of them in public. Like anyone cared about what she did.

It wasn't that far, Vanessa thought to herself, the only reason they drove to school was because they were lazy so a twenty minute walk wouldn't kill her. Wind her and give her insane thoughts about physical exercise, yes, but not kill her. All she had to do was drop off her school stuff before she walked back to meet Bonnie at the Grill. Mystic Falls was a small town, so she wasn't surprised when she walked through the Town centre and saw plenty of people she knew- she could almost guarantee running into three or four people she knew.

But being knocked onto her ass?

That was new.

"What the fuck?" Vanessa grumbled, fumbling around to pick up her school-work that had fallen out of her bag and was everywhere. It's not like she'd actually do her homework but she liked to say she tried and with the sheets blowing everywhere, she couldn't really do that.

"Sorry, should really look where you're going," An amused voice came from above, but not like God- like an asshole with a pretty face and blue eyes.

"You're the one who bumped into me, dick," Vanessa muttered under her breath, shoving her papers into her bag without looking at him or taking the offered hand that was supposed to help her stand to her feet. He stood there for a moment before shoving his hands deep into his leather jacket pockets, watching as the girl got to her feet with a grumble. Damon couldn't really believe his eyes though as another carbon copy roamed the street- so what if he purposely knocked her over? What better way to start a conversation?

First, there was the Katherine double, the lovely Elena. Who was in every way her opposite in the personality department.

And then there was a Kristina double? Very much the opposite of the original in sense of personality. It was like a cruel irony as if the two sisters personalities had been swapped around.

The Pierce Sisters, otherwise known as the bane of his existence and the reason for his return to Mystic Falls.

"Damon Salvatore," He introduced himself, sticking out his hand with the very same cocky crooked smile that he knew made ladies weak in the knees- not that he could blame them. He was gorgeous. He was mildly surprised for the girl to wrinkle her nose in distaste and push his hand away, otherwise known as resisting the ol' Salvatore charm which Damon was very fluent in.

"Yeah, it's your pleasure to meet me I'm sure but I gotta go," Vanessa said, she knew she was being rude but she couldn't care at this point. She went to move past him to carry on walking whilst she messed around with her I-pod and hoped to god that it wasn't broken. She didn't have the funds at the moment to fix it or worse, buy a new one. She'd had ol' reliable for too long for him to die on her now, even if he was chipped at the corner and it did skip a few too many songs for it to be normal. She completely ignored 'Damon Salvatore' in favour of walking away. He was a jerk and she didn't like him, she'd have no problem saying it to Stefan either.

"It was nice meeting you Vanessa," He called out, but when she turned around he was gone.

...How did he know her name?

"Creep." She muttered to herself before carrying on walking home, not noticing the crow that was staring at her form its perch on the lamppost.

* * *

"His name is Stefan Salvatore. He lives with uncle up at the old Salvatore boarding house. He hasn't lived here since he was a kid. Military family, so they moved around a lot. He's a Gemini, and his favourite colour is blue." Caroline said, listing off all the things that she and Vanessa had gathered about the hunky newcomer to the falls. Vanessa nodded in synch with every piece if information, she didn't really think much of the Salvatore guy but if Caroline wanted him. Then so be it.

"You got all of that in one day?" Bonnie asked, raising an eyebrow but Caroline merely waved a hand towards Bonnie like it was no big deal.

"Oh, please, I got all that between third and fourth period. We're planning a June wedding." Caroline bragged, grinning deviously as Bonnie shook her head.

"Bridesmaids would look nice in a mint green in a June wedding." Vanessa commented bleakly, stirring her drink and taking a sip to smother her grin at Bonnie's look. It was somewhere between _Why-Do-I-Hang-Out-With-The-People_ and _All-Hope-Is-Lost-In-The-World_.

"I know right?"

"And it'd match his eyes" Vanessa said, widening her eyes at Bonnie and fluttering her eyelashes ridiculously. Bonnie just bumped hips were her as they followed Caroline to wherever her social butterfly tendencies took her. Personally, Vanessa would have rather been at home with her Aunt Jenna to complain about her first day, but no, she was good and put on her best skinny jeans and had ventured into the shallow depths of her pathetic social life. She briefly glanced over at the tables closer to the doors, catching a glance at Matt and waving as she and Bonnie grabbed a table whilst they waited for both Caroline and Elena to return to their brilliant company. "So what's this I hear bout you being psychic?"

Bonnie almost snorted her drink before glancing at Vanessa with a groan.

"Caroline?"

"Caroline. So c'mon Miss Mystical and future- tell me what lies in the vast beyond," Vanessa said with an ominous voice, Bonnie knew there wasn't a single mean bone in Vanessa's body about it though Vanessa still thought it would be hilarious if the only mean bone she had, actually turned out to be her funny bone. She laid her hand on the table and wiggled her eyebrows at Bonnie, who chewed her lip before taking her hand.

"You want me to wear a napkin as a bandanna too?" Bonnie said jokingly, grinning when Vanessa nodded enthusiastically. "Okay.., I see a wiggly line- annnnd the fact that you really need to use moisturiser _and_ get a new pen because it's leaked all over-"

"_Bonnie_." Vanessa whined with a pout.

"Okay, okay, I predict..." That was when Bonnie's stare got a bit glassy, vacant, like no one was home. It wasn't really unusual for Bonnie to zone out but when she was making a prediction? Either she was psychic or she had a weird way for shits and giggles. "...three men and a girl."

"That's it?" Vanessa asked incredulously, taking her palm away as Bonnie shrugged her shoulder with a frown.

"That's what I saw, three men and a blonde girl that wasn't Caroline." Bonnie said firmly, the two of the stayed in silence for a moment before Bonnie turned to her friend. "Don't tell anybody about the whole, spacing out, psychic thing, please?"

"Lock and key babe, maybe you _are_ psychic," Vanessa said in awe, laughing at the stink-eye that Bonnie sent her way- their attention momentarily diverted when Matt took a seat at their table. She could honestly say that Matt was her favourite guyfriend in all of the world, her old crush before Elena snapped him up, it was a bit awkward when Elena dumped him. She won him back over though when she turned up on his doorsteps with some Cookie Dough Ice cream like they used to do when they were kids and one was upset. "Mattie, my love, gimme fries!"

"Sorry Nessie, not working tonight," Matt said with a grin, chuckling as her heard a faint 'Darn it' before his expression became sheepish almost "How's Elena?"

"She's, uh, she's good I mean- with everything that's been going on," Vanessa said, fumbling over her words and staring down into the bottom of her glass. Bonnie laid a hand over Vanessa's, smiling when her friend squeezed it gratefully. Bonnie and Vanessa weren't the closest of friends, if anything it kind of split of into pairs as it tended to do in an even number but Bonnie had to admire how strong Vanessa was about the whole thing. Not once had Bonnie seen her cry about it though Caroline had seen plenty of it, Bonnie and Vanessa were the kind of friends which had each others back silently.

" Has she said anything about me?" Matt asked curiously.

"You wanna know? You call her yourself Matt, you know that."

"I feel weird calling her. She broke up with me."

"Give it more time, Matt." Bonnie said comfortingly

That was until Elena walked in with Stefan by her side, then everything got kind of awkward. Caroline had her whole jealousy thing going on as she broke away from talking to Tyler to sit down next to Vanessa and Matt looked heartbroken. All she wanted to do was cuddle him and his cute blondness.

"More time, huh?" Matt said glumly as he put his jacket on, walking over towards Elena.

"Hey, I'm Matt, nice to meet you." He introduced himself good-naturedly.

"Hi. Stefan."

"Hey." Matt said to Elena, nodding his head at her.

"Hey." Elena replied awkwardly, and Vanessa could only a blow out a sigh of releif as Matt continued past them adn let Elena and Stefan take a seat at their table. The conversation quickly turning into an interrogation of Stefan Salvatore- all Vanessa needed was one of those lamps that she could swing intimidatingly and a cigarette. For some reason they all had cigarette's in the old fashioned movies... not to mention she really wanted a cigarette. Whilst she wasn't a dedicated smoker, she couldn't help the cravings for nicotine at some points.

"So, you were born in Mystic Falls?" Caroline asked.

"Mm-Hmm. And moved when I was still young."

**"**Parents?" Bonnie asked off-handedly.

"My parents passed away." Stefan admitted.

"I'm sorry. Any siblings?" Elena asked, Vanessa leaning in out of interest.

"None that I talk to. I live with my uncle." Vanessa couldn't imagine not talking to either Elena or Jeremy- the idea was just bizarre to her. So whatever feud Stefan had going on with his siblings had to be bad since even though _her _family was crumbing, they were still holding it together.

"So, _Stefan_, if you're new, then you don't know about the party tomorrow." Caroline said, dangling the piece of information like a piece of bait. Everyone loved a good party in Mystic Falls and Caroline was always the life of them. Vanessa was more of a lazy drunk herself, after a few bottles and a couple of shots- she just got too tired to drink any more.

"It's a back to school thing at the falls." Bonnie elaborated on Caroline's vague details.

"Are you going?" Stefan asked Elena.

"Of course she is." Bonnie answered for her, there was no way in hell Elena was missing out on the first party of the year. That would just lead to her missing more parties, and Vanessa just thought that her sister needed to get out there again. She needed to socialize, have fun, make out with Stefan a bit, y'know- be a teenager once again. instead of worrying all the time.

"I'll drag her by her hair," Vanessa said happily as she sneakily took a sip of Bonnie's milkshake- the girl batting her away as Stefan glanced watched her antics with a grin.

* * *

Vanessa had slept like a baby, which also meant that she had forgotten to do her homework like she said she would- it also meant History once again with the lovely Mr Tanner. She swore he could have been a professional interrogator or torturer in another lifetime because he was just that good at making them miserable that it could have been viewed as a fine art in some aspects.

"The Battle of Willow Creek took place right at the end of the war in our very own Mystic Falls. How many casualties resulted in this battle? ...Ms. Bennett?" Mr Tanner called out, and like all of them Bonnie really wasn't paying attention to Mr. Tanner's lecture. Who even bothered with that class anymore?

"Um... a lot? I'm not sure. Like a whole lot." Bonnie said hesitantly with a growing smile.

"Cute becomes dumb in an instant, Ms. Bennett." Mr. Tanner said, ignoring the suspicious cough that sounded like someone had said '_Dick_' under their breath. He turned his eyes onto his star player at that point. "Mr. Donovan? Would you like to take this opportunity to overcome your embedded jock stereotype?"

"It's ok, Mr. Tanner, I'm cool with it." Matt said casually raising a hand with a smile and making the room chuckle.

"Hmm. Elena? Surely you can enlighten us about one of the town's most significantly historical events?" Mr. Tanner said, both Gilbert's knew it was only a matter of time before Tanner began his tyranny once again and he took no mercy, even when tragedy had struck his students. No, he was merciless, and Vanessa despised him with every inch of her being at times. Maybe it was how smug he looked whilst he was degrading everyone and making them feel so dumb and beneath him.

"I'm sorry, I-I don't know." Elena stuttered.

"I was willing to be lenient last year for obvious reasons, Elena. But the personal excuses ended with summer break, both for you and Vanessa." Mr. Tanner said, bringing a tense silence over the class.

"There were 346 casualties. Unless you're counting local civilians." Stefan piped up.

To say Tanner looked surprised that someone knew the answer to one of his questions would be an understatement, though he just crossed his arms over his chest and tried to look unimpressed.

"That's correct. Mister. . .?"

"Salvatore." Stefan said with a slight smile.

"Salvatore. Any relation to the original settlers here at Mystic Falls?"

"Distant." He admitted.

"Well, very good. Except, of course, there were no civilian casualties in this battle." Mr. Tanner said, always the one to point out mistakes.

"Actually, there were 27, sir. Confederate soldiers, they fired on the church, believing it to be housing weapons. They were wrong. It was a night of great loss. The founder's archives are, uh, stored in civil hall if you'd like to brush up on your facts. Mr. Tanner." Stefan said, and Vanessa could practically here the sizzle of a burn being made.

"Hmm."

"Tanner just got Tannered by a student." Vanessa said out loud, slapping a hand over her mouth when she realized that she'd said it out loud much to the amusement of the class.

* * *

"Just admit it, Elena." Bonnie prodded.

"Oh, ok, so he's a little pretty." Elena admitted.

"He has that romance novel stare." Bonnie said jokingly- not seeing Stefan before he was accosted by a pretty blonde.

"Hey! You made it!" Caroline cheered

"I did."

"Well, let's get you a drink." Caroline said, tugging Stefan over to where he saw Vanessa drinking a questionable amount of liquid provided by Tyler Lockwood. His eyes darted over to where Elena and Bonnie stood, wanting nothing more than to go over and talk to Elena.

"Well, I'm-"

"Oh, come on- Vanessa's got all the drinks."

"So where is he?" Bonnie asked Elena teasingly.

**"**I don't know. You tell me, you're the psychic one." Elena quipped.

**"**Right, I forgot. Ok, so give me a sec. Grams says I have to concentrate." Bonnie said, closing her eyes with a smile for a moment.

**"**Wait, you need a crystal ball." Elena fumbled around, looking on the ground before she grabbed a beer bottle with a grin towards Bonnie. The Bennett girl just rolled her eyes with a grin at her best friend before going to grab the bottle- the shock from when their skin touched making her freeze though; Elena could only stare in worry at Bonnie as she drifted off, spaced out all of a sudden before she was brought back to reality. her hand snapping away from Elena's fast enough that Elena thought she had burnt Bonnie for a moment.

"What?" Elena asked her, worried by the weird gaze Bonnie was giving her.

"That was weird. When I touched you, I saw a crow." Bonnie said, her eyes wide as she tried to shake whatever feeling she had gotten. The cold sensation that had trickled under her skin like ice and slipped down her spine- she could only compare it to how she thought death would feel like. Even though they stood by the fire, she could only feel the chill of whatever had just happened.

"What?"

"A crow. There was fog, a man." Bonnie said grimly before blinking, she shook her head with a self-deprecating smile "I'm drunk. It's the drinking. There's nothing psychic about it. Yeah? Ok, I'm gonna get a refill."

Bonnie walks off, going to find Vanessa who was sat down on one of the benches by the fires they had built- swaying along to whoevers music was playing though her smile immediately dropped when seeing Bonnie's freaked out expression. Bonnie tried to smile at her but out didn't really work, in an instant Vanessa was up out of her seat and wrapping an arm around Bonnie.

"Hey, you okay?" Vanessa asked, watching Bonnie shiver a bit in her arms before nodding her head.

"Just a weird thing."

"Same as in the Grill."

Bonnie simply nodded.

* * *

"Hey! There you are. Have you been down to the falls yet? Because they are really cool at night. And I can show you. If you want." Caroline said, having her flirt cranked up to like fifty percent as she finally got Stefan alone. Having been glued to Elena's side since the moment he arrived at the party, Caroline flew at him the first chance she got and left Vanessa half way through the sentence she had been saying. They had spent a while groaning to one another who 'yucky' Stefan and Elena were- though Vanessa secretly thought they were cute. What? They had the whole intense, instant connection thing going on plus who wasn't a sucker for Stefan? She couldn't help but cheer her own twin on a little bit.

"I think you've had too much to drink." Stefan said, holding Caroline at arms length.

"Well, of course I have. So—"

"Caroline. You and me, it's not gonna happen. Sorry" Stefan said, rather rudely in Vanessa's opinion before heading off towards Elena. He could at least make it subtle that he preferred Elena over Caroline, Vanessa knew how fragile Caroline was about being second best. She walked over to her friend and shoved a bottle of beer into her friends hand with a knowing expression.

"He's a dick of an epic proportions which is probably to make up what's not in his pants," Vanessa told Caroline firmly, eyeing Stefan where he stood with her sister; she could almost see his jaw clench at that moment, his eyes turning to her for a moment as if he had heard her comment. She hoped he had. "So we're gonna get wrecked, you're gonna hook up with someone hotter than Stefan and we're gonna enjoy this part. Sound good?"

"Yeah," Caroline said, putting on a bright smile despite having her confidence knocked and she knew that Caroline's confidence was up and down like a roller coaster at times. Slinging an arm around her neck, Vanessa handed her the remains of her beer as well as the bottle she already had- her eyes following Elena as she went off after Jeremy. Really? There was a reason people came to parties Elena, and that was to _get drunk_. Jeremy was drunk, big deal!

"Do you think I'm a bad sister?" Vanessa asked Caroline with a frown, the blonde mirroring her frown as they watched Elena storm off to follow Jeremy into the woods.

"To Elena?"

"To them both, I mean. I _am_ older after-all, should I be... more worried about Jer? Like Elena is or-"

"Elena worries enough for the both of you, Jeremy's going through a rough patch. You did the same thing during summer, though I do remember seeing a packet of cigarettes in your room." Caroline said, her eyes narrowing on Vanessa who shrunk under her gaze- finally she relented, rummaging in her pockets and handing the packet she had brought to the party over to Caroline's all awaiting hand. "You're a great sister Vanessa, in your own way like Elena is in hers."

"You'll make me blush." The two grinned at one another before wandering off to start on their drinking adventures.

"Somebody help!

"Vicki? Vicki, what the hell?!" Caroline and Vanessa joined Bonnie in rushing over, wondering what on earth had happened. All three of them spotting Jeremy hunched over Vicki Donovan's body- blood oozing from her neck. Vanessa clasped a hand over her mouth and Caroline covered her eyes so she didn't see the blood.

"What happened to her?" Tyler asked, coming to the front of the crowd and crouching by his girlfriends body.

"Somebody, call an ambulance!" Matt was panicking by now and Vanessa only hoped that someone had dialled 911 as soon as possible.

"Everybody back up, give her some space!" Tyler called out, ushering people to move away.

"It's her neck. Something bit her. She's losing a lot of blood." Elena was there as well, Vanessa realized as a boy gave his jacket to put on Vicki's neck.

"Vicki, Vicki, come on, open your eyes, look at me." Matt begged his sister and it was really no surprise that matt left with Vicki in the ambulance- the crowd dispersing as soon as they realized their little tid-bit of drama had come and gone. Jeremy physically shaking and smeared with Vicki's blood on his shirt and jeans, Elena didn't look so good either.

"Hey. We're gonna go to Mainline Coffee, wait for news."

"I gotta take Nessie and Jeremy home." Elena said motioning for Vanessa to follow her.

"I'm going to stick with Caroline tonight, I want to know what happens with Vicki. I'll text you" She said, wrapping an arm around Caroline's waist. Elena nodded, walking forward and hugging her twin tightly. Bonnie handed Vanessa her car keys so they could both climb in the back and wait for Bonnie but for some reason, Vanessa lingered- listening in on what Bonnie was saying to Elena.

"Elena, there's no way I'm psychic. I know that. But whatever I saw, or I think I saw, I have this feeling..."

"Bonnie, what?"

"That it's just the beginning."

It sounded to foreboding, it almost made Vanessa wish she'd just gone to the car in the first place.

* * *

"Are you two sober yet?" Bonnie asked the duo sat across from her, Caroline had her head in her hands whilst Vanessa followed a fly with her eyes, had been doing so for the past minute.

"No." Caroline groaned, answering for the two of them.

"Keep drinking. I gotta get you home. I gotta get me home." Bonnie said with a smile, Vanessa faintly wondered when it had been agreed that she would go back to Caroline's though it made a bit of sense since neither could really stand anyone else's company when they were hungover- so going back to a judgemental Elena and a distraught Jeremy would not be a good idea. For _anyone_.

"Why didn't he go for me? You know, how come the guys that I want never want me?"

"I'm not touching that." Bonnie said, holding her hands up.

"You should do a pep rally Bon, really get peoples spirits up when they're down." Vanessa muttered under her breath as she rubbed Caroline's shoulder comfortingly. Bonnie sneered at her and Vanessa just returned the gesture as Caroline continued without a care of who was actually listening to her rant.

"I'm inappropriate. I always say the wrong thing. And... Elena always says the right thing. She doesn't even try! And he just picks her. And she's always the one that everyone picks, for everything. And I try so hard, and... I'm never the one." Caroline said, her eyes turning to Vanessa "How do you do it? She got Matt, she got that job you went for, she got Homecoming Queen."

"There's one thing she'll never get though, and that's you. So I think I win overall since you're pretty amazing." Vanessa stated, grinning as Caroline's head flopped onto her shoulder and snuggled into Vanessa's neck affectionately.

"It's not a competition, you guys." Bonnie said with a sigh.

"Yeah, it is." Caroline said, answering for the two of them once again as her head rested on Vanessa's shoulder.

* * *

Matt was tired, he was totally wiped out but as much as he wanted to sleep- he couldn't. Anxiety gnawed away at him like a bug, his knee jumping up and down as he tried to keep his nerves to himself. His head snapping up as he heard Vicki grumble under her breath, her eyes fluttering open ever so slightly but it was all he needed to know that she was alright. That his baby sister was okay.

**"**Vicki. . .Hey. Hey, it's ok. You're gonna be ok." Matt said comfortingly, repeating it over and over as if he tried to convince both himself and Vicki.

"Matt-"

**"**Hey, don't try to talk, ok? You're fine."

"Vampire." Vicki said suddenly before her eyelids fluttered shut once again and left Matt more confused than ever before.

* * *

"I'm gonna get one more drink and then we're leaving." Bonnie said as she got up from her chair, as soon as she moved though it revealed the same jerk that Vanessa had been knocked over by. His smirk, his disgustingly good looks, and she could tell that Caroline was totally going for it with the way that she took her head off of Vanessa's shoulder and straightened her back. Rolling her eyes, Vanessa ignored him completely as he continued to make eyes at Caroline.

Badboys were so overrated.

* * *

**Read & Review my pretties, let me know what you think because this crap is hard to write. **


	2. The Night Of The Commet

**I really do hate writing this, I love it but I hate it. It's a love/hate rlationship.**

**I'll get over it, but yes, second chapter is up and hopefully you guys like it- thank you to _Salllzy, Kellyxo_ and GreeniV for your lovely reviews, as well as to anyone who Favorited or Followed. You made it possible for this second chapter because it is exhausting to write sometimes. I will warn you that at some points, the plot will veer dramatically and hopefully, it will work out. Eh, Vanessa just doesn't like to follow rules so it's a bit hard to write her in a serious plot line all the time. hope you enjoy.**

**Poll on my profile for coupling ideas.**

**Disclaiming.**

* * *

"I hope everything dies a fiery death."

"Ditto."

And good morning Mystic Falls! Today we have some sunshine, a cool breeze and to feel like death warmed up.

Vanessa was just thankful she went home with Caroline that night instead of Elena, she wouldn't be able to deal with the judgy stares and the snide comments about how much she had drank that night- who didn't come into school with a hangover at some point in their lives? There was one week which she and Caroline had permanent hangovers because Caroline's mom was out of town for a Cop reunion or something like that. It was awesome, but it was costly since they had to replace all the booze they drank before Liz got home.

"What time is it?" Caroline muttered from the depths of the covers, shfiting her legs so she could free her ankles from being locked with Vanessa's. Since Vanessa was the one with the alarm that was belting 'F U Betta' by Neon Hitch at the top of it's voice, and the one of the edge of the bed, she picked up her phone and glared at the clock.

"Seven."

"I need a shower."

"Yeah, you do." Vanessa said, wrinkling her nose slightly at the stench of alcohol that clung to Caroline- that clung to the two of them really. She was no lightweight herself, she and Caroline were still readying themselves for when they headed off to College. Now there they knew how to party. "Plus I need to borrow some clothes."

"Pick somethin' out for me whilst I shower." Caroline grumbled as she climbed over Vanessa, who was laid diagonally in the bed like she was used to sleeping, to grab her towel before heading to the bathroom- Vanessa left in the residual warmth of Caroline's queen sized bed. She could safely say she slept in this bed more often than she slept in her own, or that was the case this year so far. Caroline was a still sleeper whilst she tossed and turned, usually ending up diagnal like she had done tonight whilst Caroline tucked herself in a ball like a cute little cat.

Vanessa lifted her head and glanced at her reflection in Caroline's mirror- grimacing at the massive birds nest of a bed head she had.

That's what she got for not tying it up before bed.

Rolling herself out of the bed, she sat on the edge for a moment with her feet sunk into Caroline's carpet- the very same which she could see the wine stains which they hadn't been able to wash out. She groaned and pushed herself up, enjoying the creaks and pops of her bones as she stretched for the first time that days- cracking her neck sickeningly. Caroline's wardrobe was an OCD sufferers dream, each hanger 1/2 of a centimetre away from each other, all hangers facing forward, clothes arranged in both colour, type of clothing and occasion.

Care deserved to feel like the sexy bitch she was, so with Stefan's rejection in mind- Vanessa laid out Caroline's checked top and short black skirt; she'd probably wear those knee high socks with a cute pair of doll heels. Caroline was always cute though. She didn't even have to ask Caroline any more to borrow her clothes, she just took. So she just nicked a nice black skirt and the fluffy emerald green jumper Caroline refused to wear because it didn't '_match her eyes_'. Plus it looked cute with those cat stockings she had and her Doc Martins.

Caroline flounced around in front of Vanessa in her short towel as if they had shared a womb, and in their minds they might as well have done because as soon as Caroline had dropped the towel- Vanessa was already half out her pyjamas and climbing into Caroline's en-suite bathroom with her clothes on the toilet.

"Care!"

"What?"

"I forgot knickers!"

"You want something lacy or boxers?"

"...Lacy?"

"I was going to give you that either way!" Caroline said with a smile as she reahced into her draws and snagged a pair, opopeningned the bathroom door and chucked the underwear at the pile of clean clothes that were waiting to be put on. "Don't use all the hot water."

"You say it every time but I never do!"

* * *

Vanessa regretted cheering Stefan and Elena on in that brief moment at the party yesterday, she really did.

She also regretted making the responsible decision of coming into school that day, her head was killing her and her mouth felt like sandpaper would have been preferable instead, but she regretted cheering Stefan and Elena on as well

They were gross, like that couple that was so wrapped up in one another despite having the full group right there in front of them. They were just gazing into one anothers eyes like they were the last people on earth, Elena smiling and Vanessa could practically hear the dramatic love songs playing in the background. Se physically felt sick and by the wrinkle of Bonnie's nose, she could tell that the girl was starting to get grossed about by the two of them as well. It wasn't hard, some couples were just really obnoxious when they were together. Vanessa would just make sure that when she got a boyfriend (Like in never-existing future) she would be as obnoxious as them.

"Originally discovered nearly 5 centuries ago, it hasn't been over Mystic Falls in over 145 years. Now, the comet will be its brightest right after dusk during tomorrow's celebration... Are we bothering you, Mr. Salvatore? Ms. Gilbert?" Plus Mr. Tanner was teaching, but who actually noticed that?

"Huh?" Vanessa muttered as she heard her name from Mr. Tanner, glancing away from her masterpiece which was somewhere between a mermaid and a centaur... yeah, she better leave the artwork to Jeremy. Mr. Tanner sighed in aggravation, his hand wiping down his face as if to wipe away the annoyance he felt for her lack of attention span- or maybe she was like a bug on his windshield.

"Elena Gilbert, though if you would also like to pay attention Miss. Vanessa Gilbert. That would be greatly appreciated." Mr. Tanner said monotonously, making Vanessa flush slightly at his reprimand despite having the balls to mutter '_Dick_' under her breath once again.

Vanessa was only slightly pleased that Elena and Stefan had enough sense to stop their epic romance stare as Bonnie would have put it.

* * *

"I'm confused. Are you psychic or clairvoyant?" Caroline asked her, Bonnie looking quite proud of herself with her head held high in pride.

"Technically, Grams says I'm a witch."

"Yer' a wizard Bonnie!" Vanessa said in her best Hagrid voice, Bonnie giving her a look but smiling all the same. Who couldn't smile at her? She was kind of adorable! Vanessa wouldn't stop though until she heard Bonnie laugh, Bonnie needed to laugh. She had been pretty freaked out lately with all these psychic, zone out things going on. "Finally, we have enough for a Quidditch team!"

Mission Accomplished: Bonnie let out that little snort which Vanessa thought was one of the cutest things.

She needed to stop referring to her friends as adorable and cute, her love life suffered enough without the rumor being started that she batted for the other team. Not that she would have minded but the only woman she would settle for was herself and she wasn't really fond of the idea of marrying a mirror for the rest of her life.

"My ancestors were these really cool Salem witch chicks or something. Grams tried to explain it all, but she was looped on the liquor so I kinda tuned out. Crazy family, yes. Witches? I don't think so."

"Yeah, well, feel free to conjure up the name and number of that guy from last night."

"Uh gross, no. He was the guy that knocked me over." Vanessa said as she remembered Damon, he might have the face of an angel but she was pretty sure Satan had a spot reserved for him in hell. Probably just next to hers, they could be neighbours.

"You can still hate him and wanna bang him Nessie." Caroline said slowly as if she wad talking to a child, Vanessa pouted, she knew that- gosh! Just because she was inept when it came to guys did not mean she did not know the basic fundamental laws of a hate fuck. Bonnie merely flapped a hand at the blonde with a roll of her eyes at the two best friends.

"I didn't see him. Why didn't you just talk to him?"

"I don't know. I was drunk."

"And he's a dick." Vanessa muttered.

"Still bangable though." Caroline sang.

"I'm gonna find Matt, be back in a mo'" Vanessa said with a smile, Bonnie and Caroline wvaing her off as she walked down the corridor and tried to spot her favourite Jock. Coming out the doors- she glanced across the green and spotted Matt and Elena walking along together. Awkward.

"They're keeping her overnight to make sure there's no infection, but she should be able to come home tomorrow."

"That's good news."

"Yeah."

"Did you get in touch with your mom?"

"Called and left a message. She's in Virginia Beach with her boyfriend, so... we'll see how long it takes her to come rushing home."

"Vicki's lucky that she's ok."

"MATT!" A voice yelled towards the, both Elena and Matt turning around to see Vanessa come running towards them with no point of slowing down. Matt knew better than to try and dodge, so he simply opened his arms and caught her as she crashed into him, the two teetering for a moment before they regained their balance. "Is Vicki okay? You okay? What the doctors say? Do you want me to come round with some ice cream or something?"

"Vicki's gonna be fine Nessie, Doc's say one more night in the hospital just for precautions and then she'll be home in no time." Matt said with a smile, having an arm slung around her shoulders and one of her arms around his waist.

"How are _you_ holding up though?"

"On my third Monster today because I couldn't sleep."

"Duuuude." Vanessa said with wide eyes, staring at him with respect that made Matt laugh. Elena stood off to the side, always feeling kind of ignored when it came to Matt and her sister- they had always been close but she thought they would cool off since Elena and Matt broke up. It was kind of like girl code in Elena's eyes.

"But yeah, since what happened to Vicki there's now there's talk of some missing campers."

"Did she say what kind of animal it was that attacked her?" Elena queried, trying to reassert herself in the conversation.

"She said it was a vampire." Matt huffed with a sort of amuse, sort of freaked out tone of voice.

"What/Really?" Vanessa and Elena stated in unison.

"Yeah, she wakes up last night and mutters "vampire" and then passes out." Matt said, shrugging his shoulders.

"How much did she have to drink that night?" Vanessa wondered to herself, earning herself a nudge from Matt but his smile told her it was all okay even if Elena had given her a sharp glance for her offhand comment. It wasn't as if she had any filter, today or next year.

"OK, that is weird."

"So what's up with you and the new guy?"

"Matt, the last thing that I want to do is hurt you."Elena said with a sympathetic stare, Vanessa gazing away in embarrassment at hearing this conversation.

"You know, I'm. . .I'm actually gonna go back to the hospital. I want to be there when Vicki wakes up, get the real story about last night." Matt said as he unwound his arm from around Vanessa's waist and her arm sliding off his shoulders as she gazed up at him in concern. Vicki wasn't her favourite but she was okay, cool enough for her to care moderately.

"Tell her I said hi, yea? That I'll bring some ice cream too?"

"Sure, I think she'd like that."

* * *

Jenna knew what kind man Mr. Tanner was, heck, most of the men she had dated slotted into the category that was for men just like Mr. Tanner. A class A asshole. The kind which likes to bully and belittle for their own enjoyment, to make themselves feel better. Right from the get-go he had her sit in on of the desks, the very same she'd had to sit in when she was in high school there. It was a power play kind of thing, the big towering teacher and the meek little student. It was very hard to feel like a strong parental unit when you had an asshole staring down his nose at her.

"As Jeremy's teacher, I'm concerned. All right? It's the third day of school and he's skipped six of his classes."

"Mr. Tanner, are you aware that Jeremy, Vanessa and Elena's parents died?" She wasn't one to play the sympathy card but this guy was a dick- Vanessa's favourite word to describe him though she had heard Caroline say that _Comparing him to Satan would be an insult to Satan_.

"Four months ago, a great loss. Car accident. Wickery bridge, if I remember correctly. And you're related to the family how? The, uh, mother's kid sister?" His tone suddenly conceding.

"Younger sister." So there had been a bit of an age difference between Miranda and herself? Whilst Miranda was picking out baby clothes, Jenna was taking shots. It was the balance of life but she didn't really see how her age had anything to do with this. She had kept these kids together the best that she could and she would appreciate it if everyone would back off her case and let her at least try instead of taking every opportunity to tell her that she wouldn't be able to do it.

"Right."

"Yes. Six classes? Are you sure? I mean, that's kind of hard to do." Jenna said, trying to grasp at something desperately.

"Not when you're on drugs. It's his attempt at coping, Ms. Sommers." Mr. Tanner said as he folded his arms over his chest and leaned against his desk with a knowing expression "And the signs are there. He's moody, withdrawn, argumentative, hungover. Are there any other relatives in the picture?

"I'm their sole guardian."

"Uh-huh. Should there be?"

"What are you suggesting, exactly?" Remember Jenna, you are a parental unit as Vannesa put it so clearly. That means you cannot get into fights with teachers, you cannot throw the first punch. You are a figure of authority now and have to be a role model, not to mention that Mr. Tanner would throw it in her face by saying she was too impulsive to take care of three teenagers if she couldn't even control herself. So it didn't matter how much she wanted to throw him a right hook, she wouldn't. She would remain calm, cool and collected.

Besides, it's not as if the kids would willingly go to their Uncle John for guardianship- Vanessa maybe, but she was too loyal to her Auntie J to do something like that. Elena stated quite vocally that she would, and Jenna could quote this '_Rather swallow bleach and dance around naked in the streets than go and see Uncle John_'. Jeremy, he was a teenager and right now, he hated everyone. Even if that included Jenna.

"It's an impossible job, isn't it, raising three teens?"

"It's been tough, but, no, it's not."

"Wrong answer. It is an extremely impossible job, and anything less and you're not doing it properly."

She was completely wrong, he wasn't an A grade Asshole.

He was on a whole different level.

* * *

"Well, I was talking to Grams, and she said the comet is a sign of impending doom. The last time it passed over Mystic Falls, there was lots of death. So much blood and carnage, it created a bed of paranormal activity."

"Yeah, and then you poured Grams another shot and she told you about the aliens. So then what?" Caroline said, kinda rudely in Vanessa's opinion. She squeezed Bonnie's hand comfortingly on the table as all attention was turned back to Elena, _again_. So what, she had a new boyfriend- now was Caroline going to live her life through her sisters non-existent sex life?

"So then nothing." Yep, a whole load of nothing in the sex department.

"You and Stefan talked all night? There was no sloppy first kiss or touchy feely of any kind?"

"Nope. We didn't go there."

"Not even a handshake? I mean, Elena, we are your friends- Vanessa is your twin! Ok? You are supposed to share the smut."

"I'd rather not hear about it." Vanessa said, wrinkling her nose in disgust at the idea of her sister getting some the other night and the possibility that she could have heard it- or even worse, walked in on them. God the horror of it. She might have asked Jenna to gouge her eyes out for her if that had happened.

"Please, you'd hear it through the walls before Elena talked to you about it." Caroline said, batting her hand and laughing at the horrified expression the crept across Vanessa's face.

"We just talked for hours." Elena said with a shrug, grinning and it was nice to see her smile. It had been a while since Vanessa had seen her sister smile.

"OK, what is with the blockage? Just jump his bones already! Ok, it's easy. Boy likes girl, girl likes boy, sex!" Caroline said, using one hand to represent Elena and the other to represent Stefan before bringing them together as a clap.

"I hope that's how you tell your children about how you met your future husband Caroline." Vanessa said as she swirled around her drink, continuing to fold flyers as she said it.

"Like a _How I Met Your Mother_ kind of thing?" Caroline pondered, branching out on her thoughts of having the 'birds and the bees' talk with her children.

"Where are you going?" Bonnie asked as Elena grabbed her bag and stood up from her chair,

"Caroline's right." Elena stated, Caroline turning to Bonnie with a smug expression. "It is easy. If I sit here long enough, I'll end up talking myself out of it instead of doing what I started the day saying what I was going to do."

"Woo! My sisters gonna get laid!" Vanessa cheered as Elena walked away, drawing everyone's attention as Bonnie dropped her head in her hands. Caroline just threw her head back and laughed as Elena turned around, bright red in the cheeks. They all continued to watch as Elena walked off, it was a pretty quick walk if you took the shortcut round past the cemetery but all three of them sighed when seeing Elena's jacket laid on the chair.

"I'll go take it to her." Vanessa muttered huffily under her breath as she took the remainder of the flyers which Caroline needed folding. "See you tomorrow, I'll be the cute one."

"Staring at my reflection won't help you," Caroline called after her, Bonnie and the blonde sharing a snigger when Vanessa flipped them the bird despite some of the outraged looks from an elderly couple sat near them.

* * *

Elena wouldn't have survived a horror movie, it was a simple fact of life. Really? When you knock on a door and it opens creepily, seemingly unlocked? The first thing you do is back away because either a) they forgot to lock the door b) it had been broken into or c) you were in a horror movie and the place was haunted where they would all die painfully. Elena was dumb though, she continued to push forward and walked straight into the house.

"Stefan? Stefan?" Her voice practically echoed within the place, it was... big. Grand, fancy like the restaurant their Dad used to take them to every new years eve.

The door creaked once again and it caught Elena's attention, so she retreated back towards the door and stared out onto the empty drive for a moment- confused. That was when a crow flew in, right over her head and making her almost jump out f her skin; as she turned around though, she came nose to nose with another handsome face that definitely wasn't Stefan's.

"I. . .I'm sorry for barging in. The door was. . .open."

"You must be Elena... I'm Damon, Stefan's brother." He said with his eyes focused upon the mirror image of his one beloved, Katherine would have been ashamed of the personality her doppelgänger had on her. Saying it was a disgrace to her own beauty or something to that extent. It was like a hollow punch every time he saw Elena, like for a moment he was there with Katherine- and then her hair would be too straight, her eyes too clouded with judgement and her actions meek. It was setting himself up for disappointment.

"He didn't tell me he had a brother." Elena said quietly with a soft frown.

"Well, Stefan's not one to brag. Please, come. I'm sure Stefan will be along any second." Damon invited her in cordially, be nothing but sweet and give her no reason for her to hate you. Setting people up for disappointment about himself was probably one of his favourite passtimes.

"Wow. This is your living room?"

"Hello?" Another voice called around and Elena felt her brow pull together in confusion.

"Vanessa?" Elena called out, seeing her stood in the open doorway with Elena's jacket slung over her arm. The one which had her keys, her purse, her _phone_ in. Vanessa didn't step foot in the home though, she had knocked but it kind of just swung open. They really needed to get a locksmith down there, stat; especially since their home was so fancy, she wouldn't mind pinching a few things for herself but she wasn't a klepto.

"You forgot your jacket." Vanessa said, her eyebrow raising as she glanced at Damon who merely gave her a wicked smile.

"Vanessa, so nice to see you again." He stated, holding out his hand for her to shake- which she did. She wasn't going to come across as the bad guy in front of her twin, Elena would spend ages nagging her about it before the day was through.

"Yeah, peachy," Vanessa said, kind of confused with the nicey-nice business he was pulling, receiving a sharp glance from Elena.

"I see why my brother's so smitten." Damon said, returning his gaze to Elena "It's about time. For a while there, I never thought he'd get over the last one. Nearly destroyed him."

"The last one?"

"Yeah. Katherine, his girlfriend?" Damon paused for a moment before he lifted his eyebrows in 'realisation', Vanessa knew what he was doing. She'd seen Caroline been a bitch (and done it herself) enough times to know when someone was planting a little seed of doubt in someone elses head. Plus he had the looks for it, so he could come across as perfectly innocent whilst doing it. Stupid good looks. "Oh, you two haven't had the awkward exes conversation yet."

"Nope."

"Oops. Well, I'm sure it'll come up now. Or maybe he didn't want to tell you because he didn't want you to think he was on the rebound. We all know how those relationships end."

"You say it like every relationship is doomed to end." Elena stated with a small frown, Vanessa could see she was kind of uncomfortable talking to Stefan and she didn't blame her twin at all. He was a dickwad.

"I'm a fatalist." Damon said as his eyes went to the stares, his grin growing as he spotted a silently seething Stefan "Hello, Stefan."

"Elena, Vanessa. I didn't know you were coming over.

"I know. I should have called, I just..." Elena stuttered kind of bashfully so Vanessa decided to dig her twin out of whatever grave she was going to dig for the two of them.

"Damon was just telling us all about your ex, he's a real charmer. You keep him locked inside the house for a reason I see," Vanessa said with a perfectly innocent smile, the kind which wasn't too much teeth but with enough sweetness to cut him like a knife. Damon made a wounded expression, placing a hand over his heart with a pout.

"Vanessa, I thought we had a connection."

"Last time I do a satanic ritual." Vanessa quipped, her brow pulling into a frown at Damon. Such a waste of hotness, such a dick, not even a good dick and that could probably be taken in more than one way since she liked to think that if a guy was a royal dick- it was usually to make up for what _wasn't_ in his pants.

"Really though Elena. You and your sister are welcome any time. Isn't she, Stefan? You know, I should break out the family photo albums or some home movies. But... I have to warn you. He wasn't always such a looker."

"Thank you for stopping by, Elena, Vanessa. Nice to see you." Stefan said rather abruptly but Vanessa could see where he was coming from, she'd rather he didn't see her spats with Elena or Jeremy either. It was family business.

"Yeah, I should probably go. It was nice to meet you, Damon." Elena said, always the polite one.

"Great meeting you, too, Elena. Hope to see you again soon Vanessa."

"Sure, maybe I'll see you next time I pop down to the morgue." Vanessa said, fluttering her eyelashes as she turned to Elena, looping her arm through her sisters. She was on fire today, her wit had no failed her in her time of need. Why couldn't Elena appreciate her amazing barbs? The two of them turned to leave but Stefan stood in the way, shooting imaginary daggers at his brother with his puppy dog green eyes.

"Stefan?" Elena stated, watching as he glared at Damon once again before moving out of her way. Vanessa and Elena walked towards the door before Elena leaned closer to Vanessa.

"Why didn't you tell me you'd met Damon before?" She whispered.

"Because we got caught up talking about you, and Stefan and the party. Plus he is a royal dick, so don't take anything he says to heart- he probably wanted to bang Stefan's ex or something." Vanessa said with little care that Damon might have, well definitely, heard her as she walked out of the house.

* * *

"He's on the rebound and has raging family issues."

"So, it's not like our family is picture perfect either _plus_ technically, you could still be classed as on the rebound from Matt." Vanessa said in her best lecture voice, popping a slice of apple into her mouth as if it would emphasize her point. She wasn't really fond of Stefan, but his brother was totally worse. So by default, Stefan would be her favourite if only by default at the moment. It wasn't as if she knew Stefan, he was just into Elena.

"But he didn't tell me when we talked, I told him almost everything and to find out this..."

"You've barely known him for a day or two Elena, give it time." Vanessa said with a faint smile.

"Well, at least it's an ex-girlfriend. Wait till you date a guy with mommy issues or cheating issues. Or amphetamine issues." Aunt Jenna said, nodding her head and staring off into the distance with her apple in hand- no doubt having a flashback to guys with said baggage. Elena raised an eyebrow at her as she continued to put some more chocolate syrup on her whipped cream and ice cream before glancing at Vanessa who also had an eyebrow raised.

"Who have you been dating Auntie J?" Vanessa asked with an incredulous gaze,.

Aunt Jenna's no doubt colourful and weird dating stories were put on a hold when every one heard the door quietly open and close- otherwise known as Jeremy's efforts of stealth. The Gilbert's were definitely not ninjas in past lives though with the way that Jeremy was stomping about. vanessa laughed at Jeremy's freaked out expression when he spotted all three of them in the kitchen, his escape quickening as he tried to flee up the stairs.

"Jeremy? Jeremy, where were you?"

_Flee brother, flee_ Vanessa thought to herself as she popped another slice of apple in her mouth.

"More stoner stories? Look, Jenna, I get it, you were cool. And so that's. . .that's cool." Jeremy said lazily, and for a brief second the twins could see a flash of indignation crawl across Jenna's face.

_She probably thought she was still cool, poor misguided Aunt Jenna _Vanessa thought to herself as she popped another piece of apple into her mouth, offering a slice to Elena without taking her eyes away from her little brother and her Aunt. Elena took the offered piece without letting her eyes drift as well, both enraptured by a stern Aunt Jenna.

"Oh, no, no, no!" She said, riling herself up before throwing a poor defenceless apple at the back of Jeremy's head, his reaction was so delayed that even Elena snorted under her breath.

"Ow! Why? Why, why did you do that?"

"Quit ditching class or you're grounded. No discussion." Jenna said firmly, pointing a finger at him.

"Parental authority, I like it. Sleep tight." Jeremy said with a lazy grin, oh he was so stoned. He gave Aunt Jenna a thumbs up as well before he jogged upstairs, Jenna throwing them a frustrated glance, Elena shrugging her shoulders.

As soon as his door shut Vanessa couldn't help but burst out laughing.

* * *

The day was there, the day of the comet which was supposed to either bring them good luck or carnage of an epic proportion- predictions via Sheila Bennett everyone. Vanessa had helped out Caroline with the set up but even Caroline had to agree that she was kind of shit, that she should leave all the work to her and Vanessa wasn't exactly complaining about it. they got a day off school, she got to be with Caroline and do nothing. So far, her day had been turning up with roses.

Not enough roses to forget that dream but, enough.

The sky had darkened slightly and this was around about time which the candles were given out- some kind of symbolism of relighting their will for life no doubt. Something cheesy like that because Caroline was that kind of girl.

"Hey, I got some candles." Caroline said cheerily, handing out the candles to everyone and it was kind of agreed that Vanessa shouldn't be the one who lit the first match to light the first candle in their group.

"Hi. Hey." Elena said to Matt and it was sad at the fond look Matt had on his face every time he glanced at Elena.

"Hey." He said with a small smile as he lit Elena's candle before walking over to where Vanessa, Caroline and Bonnie were stood.

"Vicki out of hospital?" Vanessa asked as soon as Matt walked over, he smiled at her and wrapped an arm round her shoulder and her arm sliding around his waist instantly. caroline sent her an impressed look- something that probably read along the lines of, '_You moving in on Matt? Nice one, make sure to rub it in Elena's face and make her as uncomfortable as possible_'. Vanessa just shook her head slightly with a small smile at her bestie.

"Yeah, she's back at work now."

"Already?" Bonnie put in, gnawing her lip in concern- Bonnie was just cool like that. Always looking out for other people.

"Looks like trouble in Paradise." Vanessa said quietly, nudging Caroline as the two of them watched Stefan and Elena chat for a while before Elena blew out her candle and walked away from Stefan. He looked like a kicked puppy, big green eyes as he watched Elena walk away- it was almost heartbreaking for her to watch. then again, he'd been a dick to Caroline so she felt no remorse for him. (Okay maybe a tiny bit, him and Elena were cute together, okay!? Even if it was sickly, couple, togetherness kind of thing.)

* * *

"Hey, has anyone seen Vicki?" Jeremy asked the, coming to stand at their table with a panicked expression on his adorable little face- right, Vanessa, focus! Tyler scoffed, what was Tyler even doing at their table? Like, only Matt liked him and that wasn't even enough of a majority to allow him to sit at their table. It was like Mean Girls all over again, Vanessa would so have to wear pink with Caroline that Wednesday. But yeah, Tyler scoffed-

"You're her stalker. You tell us."

"I can't find her." Jeremy said in worry.

"She probably found somebody else to party with. Sorry, pill pusher, I guess you've been replaced." You'd have thought that Tyler would be a little more concerned that his girlfriend, or was she his ex? was missing. Matt had an exasperated look on his face at his friend and her little brother's argument over his sister- the one which was missing at that moment in time.

"What's with the pill pusher?" Elena asked, latching onto the only part in that conversation which meant she could have a go at Jeremy and Vanessa could see her twin getting ready for a rant. Vanessa rubbed her temples in aggravation, ready to pull Tyler's throat out when he smirked.

"Ask him." he said with a nod towards Jeremy.

"You wanna do this right now?" Jeremy hissed.

"Are you dealing?" Elena asked, the judgement already passed in her eyes and Vanessa knew Jeremy was being fed to the wolves.

"She's never gonna go for you." Tyler stated quietly, seriously.

"She already did. Over and over and over again."

"Gross." Vanessa muttered under her breath to Caroline, her best friend sniggering at her misfortune. "On my list of things to do today, to hear about my little brothers sex life was not on there."

"Yeah, right." Tyler scoffed, ignoring Vanessa and rolling his eyes.

"You slept with Vicki Donovan?" Caroline asked incredulously before Matt gave her a hard stare "I mean, Vicki Donovan slept with _you_?"

"There's no way." Tyler denied quickly.

"If there's a will, there's a way." Vanessa said happily as she drank her drink

"And I didn't even have to force her into it." Jeremy snarled, and there was a beat of silence. Vanessa had never liked Tyler, he was a dick- a royal dick; but she didn't think he was _that_ kind of dick and apparently, neither did anyone else but Jeremy wouldn't lie about those kind of things.

"What the hell is he talking about, Ty?" Matt asked him quietly though Vanessa could see the quiver of his fist, angry Matt wasn't something that come out to play often since he was almost the most mellow person out of their entire group. Angry Matt scared her slightly and she could see that Tyler was a bit cautious now as well.

"Nothing, man, just ignore him, he's a punk." he said, trying to draw the subject to a close- Jeremy was about to argue but Matt cut him off.

"You know what, how about all of you shut up and help me find my sister?" Matt snapped, finally fed up of the drama and tension between Tyler and Jeremy like they all were.

"We'll check the back." Bonnie said as she gestured between Caroline and herself.

"I'll check the square."

"I'll come with you." Jeremy said, trying to get away from Elena as soon as he could and not that Vanessa could really blame him. Elena looked somewhere between having swallowed a lemon and a bull that had seen a red flag. It wasn't the most attractive face but she was sure that would Stefan would love her sister's ugly mug no matter how nasty it got.

"Oh, no, no, no. You are coming with me. So that's your game now, dealing?"

"I'm not dealing." Jeremy snarled.

"Look, I'm sick of the tough love speech, Jer. It's clearly having no impact."

_And it was getting pretty nasty out here_, Vanessa thought to herself as she was forced to endure yet another argument between the two siblings.

"You and Jenna, really, can't you lay off?"

"We can stop if you want. Send you to a therapist where you'll be forced to deal with it or to rehab where you'll sit in group and tell some stranger all of your problems or you could make it all easier, you could talk to me."

"I vote for none of the above."

And for some reason, that was the last straw for Vanessa. The month of bottled up frustration at her siblings constantly squabbling over each others coping techniques, about how judgemental each of them were- it was like she was playing an aggressive game of piggy in the middle but there was no end of the game in sight. Ping pong, back and forth between Elena and Jeremy till she felt dizzy. They didn't _need_ therapy, they needed to stop fighting one another because they were all on the same freakin' side!

"You guys need to knock it off in general actually," Vanessa hissed, capturing her siblings attention as she balled up her firsts by her sides. It was one of those days which The Gilbert's were reminded that Vanessa was actually the eldest and she could pull her guns when she needed to. "I am so _sick_ of hearing this, _Jeremy's doing this_, _Elena needs to back off_, _Be the better person_. Every one copes in their own ways."

There was a moment of silence as Vanessa took a deep breath.

"So Jeremy smokes a bit of pot, big fucking deal," Vanessa hissed, "Should he be trying to bottle it up like you are Elena?"

"And you." Vanessa said turning to Jeremy "I am sick of you pushing us away, y'think we don't know how it feels? They weren't just your parents Jer'."

"So now I am going to go, and we are going to help find Vicki for both Jeremy _and _Matt's sake, and so help me if I hear another argument about this then I am packing up and moving in with _Uncle John_." Vanessa threatened, glaring at the two of them. Jeremy staring at her blandly as if he didn't care for a word she had said but she could see the embarrassed pink tinge that tipped his ears and Elena, her jaw was nearly touching the floor at her sisters declaration. "Do I make myself clear?"

It was safe to say that both siblings nodded readily.

* * *

"Ugh, it's just so much drama."

"Total Drama Island." Vanessa agreed, laying her head down on the table as she tried to reduce the throbbing her temples. Stupid migraines. Stupid alcohol.

"Ever notice how the druggies are the biggest attention whores?" Caroline said nastily, receiving a faint slap on the back of her hand but she didn't really deny it. Vicki was not her number one lady, she didn't like what she did to Jeremy, didn't like how she treated her brother, but she was nice to her because of Matt and Vicki could be kinda cool when she wanted to be. A lot of people were only civil to her though because of Matt though Vicki never seemed to realize that she was lucky to have him.

"Yeah." Bonnie muttered, her fingers curling around a mug of coffee, and Vanessa could see as clear as day that Bonnie felt the exact same way about her as she did.

"Excuse me. Hi."

"Hi."

"Um, have you guys seen Elena?" Stefan asked, looking very much like a lost puppy- a cute puppy with green eyes and good hair. Adorable puppy.

"I think she went home. I'm gonna give you Elena's cell number and her email. She is big on texting, and you can tell her... "I said so". Go Bon, be proactive in Elena's non-existent, eternally complicated love life.

"Thank you." He said but as his hand skimmed Bonnie's, Vanessa could easily see the glazed look in her eyes that hadf happened so many times. She hadn't brought it up with Caroline but she was getting kind of freaked, this had _never_ happened to Bonnie before and was kind of surprised that one one thought that these weird breaks in concentration were... well, _weird._

"You ok?" Stefan asked her, kind of freaked out himself probably.

"What happened to you?" Bonnie whispered. Vanessa placed an arm on the girls elbow and shook her slightly, Bonnie coming out of her trance with an embarrassed flush. "That's so rude. I'm sorry. Excuse me."

Bonnie got up and left the table without another word; _Vanessa had levelled up from **concerned** to **defo' worried about**__** Bonnie**_. It wasn't as if Caroline would take her serious about these things and it wasn't as if Elena could pull herself away from her own problems to help her- no, that sounded mean. Elena loved her friends very much but was kind of... unobservant, when it came to other peoples problems. Heck, the only reason Elena knew she was down most of the time was because they were twins and it was a sort of a thing they knew about one another. Without that, Elena would have been walking on eggshells most of her life. Who even came up with the term walking on eggshells?**  
**

"Yeah, she kind of wigs out. It's like her thing." Caroline said.

"Play nice," Vanessa chided, watching Bonnie as she fled the Grill like a bat out of hell. She couldn't help but chew her lip and hope that Bonnie was okay.

"Yes Mom."

"I could so be a sheriff." Vanessa said with a nod as if she was imagining it all, though Caroline knew that her friend was probably thinking that she would use her power for evil and steal all of the energy drinks she could and use everyone's wifi for free. She knew Nessie like the back of her hand.

"You'd rock the uniform." Caroline said confidently, grinning at Vanessa. They stayed there for a while, just being normal teenagers before Vanessa decided she was tired enough to venture back to her house where Stefan and Elena hopefully weren't banging. Caroline just waved her off and went to get her car from the Grill car park. The breeze was kind of chilly and the place was empty.

Kind of creepy too.

So Caroline had a bit of a moment and dropped her keys right next to her car, bending over to pick them up- she was atartled by a loud crash from behind her but when she turned around there was nothing. With a shake of her head she turned back to her car only to have the hot guy from the Grill the other night stood there. Caroline put a hand over her heart in shock.

"Oh... whoa." As she tried to steady her heartbeat.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." He said in a way which told her that he _really_ wasn't sorry, bad boy attitude. Not bad.

"No, it's fine. Um... I was hoping I'd see you again." She said, cranking the flirt up to thirty percent. No need to scare him off now that she had him right where she wanted. She was sure Vanessa would be waving her little pom poms round, cheering her on and encouraging her to go for it if she was here. That's what she needed to think, she could do this- she deserved a hottie like Damon.

"I know." He said with a self-assured smirk and shrug of his shoulders.

"Cocky much?" Caroline asked, raising an eyebrow with her voice a bit breathless and her heart still racing but this time it was purely him making her heart react this way.

"Very much."

* * *

_The windows cracked and water spilled in._

_She couldn't scream, couldn't move. Just stood there as the water spilled in, flooding, slowly rising till it was ankle deep, knee deep but she couldn't move an inch, couldn't fidget with her hands that were laid over one another at her stomach in a position that looked like a porcelain doll. She was forced to wait till she drowned, as she was bathed in the dirty waters spilling from her windows like the Niagara falls had moved just outside of her window._

_Slowly the water rose until it reached her waist._

_Under the swell of her breasts._

_Her shoulders._

_And when it reached her neck, the sharp panic took over her as she took a deep breath and the water slowly rose until there was no room for her to breath, left in the darkness of her room that was now sunken like the titanic. Her eyes clamped shut as she tried to hold onto her breath for as long as she could._

_And when she felt the world slowly fall away, her final breath leaving her in an array of bubbles and her eyes opened- she screamed..._

_"This is how it ends, Vanessa," Her double said, her words clear as day despite being underwater. Her features softer with a caring smile that scared her all the more- her hand coming up to caress her cheek. Her eyes darkened though, hardening till they were like two onyx gems under the glittering sun with veins protruding around the eyes. The fangs were what really brought her attention though... _

_"This is how it always ends."_

Vanessa woke up with a gasp.

She had left the Grill not long after Caroline, said her hi's and bye's to Jenna and Jeremy as she went to bed- very much recovering from the party still. The dream though... the nightmare, was unlike one she'd had before. She swore she could still feel the water lapping at her ankles even as she laid within the safety of her bed. As much as she wanted to turn over and go back to sleep, she knew it would be futile and she'd be kept up all night with the fear of the waters cracking; the fear of waters flowing.

But it didn't mean she couldn't try.

* * *

**Read and review my pretties, let me know what you think because this crap is hard to write. **


	3. Friday Night Bites

**I say this with every chapter- but I really hate this chapter. **

**I'm not kidding, it is absolutely exhausting but I love writing it. Since I'm doing this kind of episode by episode- I might split it into a new fanfic for each season or should I start smushing episodes together? Tell me what you think. Thank you to _Anonymous_, Salllzy, A Darker Heaven and Hell (Which btw, I totally agree with you there) and _Jana_ for your reviews. Also thank you to anyone who favourited or followed the story. gosh, you guys make it worth it. There is a poll on my profile for pairings if you wanna take a peak.**

**Disclaiming.**

* * *

_"Elena?" Vanessa calls out, watching her twin with a worried expression_

_She stood there in an old medieval dress, her Elena stood there like it was a perfect day to re-enact history- her hair in soft ringlets that fell just below the curve of her breasts in the same chocolate brown as it had always been. In her perfectly dainty hands though, there laid a rock that was about the size of her head- it was jagged, it was heavy to simply look at but her sister held it in her hands like it was nothing more than a feather from their pillows. In fact, she managed to toss it between each of her hands as if she could juggle three rocks of that size with ease of a circus monkey._

_Elena stood there with the rock, the rock which had a chain running from it- a thick iron chain which slithered down from said rock and between the green grass they stood on. Vanessa followed it with her eyes until she met her feet; the chain wrapped around her feet, cutting off the circulation to her ankles and to her feet. How could she not feel that before? Was that even there before? She shook her head before her eyes turned back to Elena with a panicked expression;_

_"Elena? Please, what are you-"_

_And then the grass disappeared before them, and underneath her was the dark waters. She and Elena still stood there though, floating, as if the ground was solid. Elena still held the rock that was tied to her ankles in thick chains. The smirk on her sisters lips was terrifying though, the slant of her chin as she ducked her head and her beautiful brown eyes glimmered was terrifying. Elena stared at her with such vicious enjoyment that Vanessa felt the panic spike in the pit of her belly- the need to struggle, to fight, to run but she couldn't run. Not from her sister, not whilst she was in chains. She was a sitting duck._

_"Better you die than I." She hissed, the words in a perfect British accent as she dropped the rock and Vanessa was pulled into the dirty waters. The drop so sudden she didn't have time to grasp at a last breath of fresh air._

_She kicked, she struggled and tried to pull the chains from her ankles but with every kick she made another chain attached to her. One whipping around her right wrist, then her left- one slithering around her waist and another around her neck. Vanessa screamed, the flurry of bubbles leaving her as she fought for her life in the depths of the dark waters. her eyes closing as she shook herself violently, hoping for the chains to come loose but to no avail._

_Opening her eyes she stared at her double, once again floating there in front of her. Her eyes soft and understanding before turning black as the nights sky- veins protruding around her eyes and canines lengthening to overhang her bottom lip._

_"This is how it ends Vanessa," She said, her voice lilting like a lullaby and suddenly Vanessa's eyes felt heavy as she glimpsed at the monster she had become, the monster that floated in front of her at that very moment. She felt like led, sinking further and further into the depths and she let her eyes close completely. "This is how it always ends."_

"Vanessa!" Jenna shouted, her nieces head almost slamming into hers when she sat up abruptly in her bed with a faint sheen of sweat coating her skin. Her skin was pale and her eyes bulging slightly as she tried to control her breathing, panting like she had run a hundred miles in a second. Jenna just sat there on the edge of the bed and watched her, her hand resting on her shoulder lightly but as she moved- Vanessa flinched. "Hey, _hey_, it's okay."

Her soft murmur seemed to bring Vanessa to reality as she stared at her Aunt Jenna.

"Bad dream." She said dumbly. Jenna nodded her head and used her hand to stroke back her hair, feeling very much like they had gone back in time to the days where Vanessa used to run into her room and ask her to chase away the monsters that hid under her bed. Miranda had been a lot better at the comforting thing than Jenna was, always knew what to say and what to do. So Jenna did the only thing she knew what calmed Vanessa down and climbed onto the bed, laying besides her and wrapping her arms her shaking niece, tucking her away until she heard a light snore come from her.

Jenna glanced at the clock on the bedside table Vanessa stacked with books and her favourite Harley-Quinn comics, the alarm clock was actually plugged in this time and the green lights hurt her eyes slightly.

**3:51AM**

Jenna was surprised Elena or Jeremy didn't hear their sisters thrashing in her sleep- or the whimpers she made but then again Jenna only heard it because she was wide awake... trying to finish her homework. She was a bad influence, she thought to herself glumly as she resigned herself to sitting there and being cuddled by her niece; not that she minded, it made her feel like she was doing something... _useful_. Being something other than that woman who thought she could barge in on her nieces and nephews life as a temporary figure of parental supervision. Of course, she;d rather be useful in better ways than having her niece scared out of her wits because of a bad dream to the point Jenna found herself staying in her room out of concern.

Elena had her fair share of nightmares after the accident, all having all three of them climbing into her bed (Jeremy would sleep at the end of the bed by their feet, Elena in the middle with Jenna on her left and Vanessa sprawled out on her right). Vanessa had always been the one which woke up before them back then, she was the one putting cups of coffee out during the summer and tossing them out of bed as she got pep talks from Caroline. It was strange but Jenna now realized it had been Vanessa's coping mechanism- to be the strong figure that they needed.

It was a mechanism both she and Elena shared, though the latter still hiding behind it with the way she coddled Jeremy and Vanessa as if she was their mother.

Jenna wasn't even sure why she was thinking about this, she should be sleeping- but that's what happens isn't it? You wanna sleep but then you get caught up with the meaning of life, wishing you did things differently, regretting things and going to sleep with guilt. God, why was she bumming herself out with this talk? Stroking Vanessa's hair, Jenna laid a gentle kiss on her forehead before closing her eyes and forgetting the world; drifting off into a dreamland-

Where there was no essays due in tomorrow, where Miranda and Grayson were waiting for her when she came back from a date, where Vanessa and Elena ran circles through her legs and Jeremy was the adorable little kid that followed her round with his pictures. It was a nice dream.

Though Vanessa was rather confused when she woke up to having her Aunt Jenna in her bed. Her aunt laid on her back with an arm hung off the bed and the other cushioning Vanessa's head as she sprawled diagonally once again.

Ew... Aunt Jenna was _drooling_.

Vanessa grimaced, but that grimace just grew when she looked at the time- _five in the frickin' morning_- why was she awake at these unholy hours? Why was her alarm clock even plugged in?... and why did she feel like death warmed up once again, it wasn't even like she had drank anything the night before. Though it might have been that migraine that had started in the Grill. She knew she should have popped some pills for it but it was a lot nicer to just sleep it off, even if it didn't always work. The queasiness in her stomach attested to that; maybe Jenna would be the loveliest Auntie in all of the world and let her miss this one day of school.

...But seriously, the loveliest Auntie on all the world had just turned over and Vanessa was now in danger of being drooled on.

Rolling in the opposite direction of her Aunt, Vanessa winced as she tumbled off the other edge of her double bed and landed on some nail varnishes and hairbrushes she had left out. She really needed to tidy her room- and when _Vanessa _said it to herself, it was then she knew how out of control the mess had gotten. No wonder her Mom...

Vanessa paused for a moment as she sat on the hairbrushes and nail varnishes, this would be when she grabbed a roll of bin bags from downstairs and her Mom would make a sarcastically shocked comment which Vanessa would just sneer at. Her dad would laugh and say something about her Mom being just as bad when she was a teenager... she missed them. It was easier to forget about missing them when she was out in the streets, out with Caroline and Bonnie and Elena; it was small things like this though that made the ache intensify. Vanessa was tempted to keep her room a mess in order to feel like her Mom would come barging in at any moment, yelling at her about the mess and how she'd come back in an hour to throw everything away if it wasn't tidy. Something she never did.

Standing up, Vanessa made her way out of her room and to the bathroom to get rid of the morning need to pee; after glancing in the mirror whilst washing her hands, she almost dropped the bar of soap when she saw how shitty she looked. Seriously, she'd had bad days but this was _bad_ bad. The bags under her eyes could have been mistaken for black eyes, her skin was pale and her hands were suddenly shaking. She didn't react to being ill very well, she would constantly whine and complain.

"Caroline's gonna kill me if I miss first cheer practice." Vanessa muttered to herself as she pulled the underside of each eye, placing her palms against her cheeks and then against her forehead. She didn't _feel_ hot, though she looked less than stellar. With a pout, she decided to head to the kitchen and grab something to eat- though when she got down there and actually thought about what she wanted to eat, her stomach didn't really agree with her. So she settled on some orange juice, the nice kind without pulp though Jenna sometimes insisted on getting it with. Blugh, nasty pulp parts.

She had always found her home creepy in the morning, especially if Jeremy wasn't up with her when they were little and sneaked downstairs to go on whatever game console they had at that point; how things had changed since Jeremy was constantly holed up in his room now on his computer. She could hear Elena rolling around in her bed, hopefully without Stefan (ew even more gross) and Jeremy snoring. So with a sigh, she flopped down on the sofa and started to watch cartoons- the old ones that only played in the morning. Like the good old fashioned Tom & Jerry's where everything was violent, Johnny Bravo and even better- Teen Titans.

That was how Elena found her in the morning, sniggering along with Spongebob Squarepants with her third cup of orange juice.

"What're you doing up?" Elena asked, Vanessa's head peering over the sofa with a frown.

"I'm ill and I can't sleep."

"You look ill." Elena stated candidly.

"Gee, thanks Elena. I feel like freakin' Tyra Banks now." Vanessa said monotonously, Elena's lips twitching up into a grin as she made herself a mug of coffee like she did every morning. the two of them sat together on the sofa for a moment, watching Spongebob Squarepants like they used to do when they were little but it wasn't long until Jenna came fumbling down the stairs, Elena had to get ready for school and Jeremy was forced out of bed. Vanessa sat there quietly as she watched cartoons though.

"Vanessa, get ready for school."

"Don't feel well, m'not going." She said back, Jenna walking to stand in front of her with her hands on her hips and a stern expression on her face- probably hyping herself up for a parental talk about how attendance was important though when her eyes landed upon vanessa's exhausted features, she seemed to deflate. Vanessa pouted, she didn't look _that_ bad did she? She must have done since jenna didn't question her at all, simply felt her forehead for a temprature like she had done herself before sighing.

"It's probably from the nightmare you had last night."

"Nightmare?"

"...You don't remember?" Jenna asked incredulously, Vanessa nodded her head- reluctant to admit that she knew she was having bad dreams and had been doing for the past couple of days at that point. "You were rolling about and I came up to see if you were alright, you were practically in tears which was why I stayed the night."

"So _that's_ why you were almost drooling on me." Vanessa said in realization.

"I do not drool." Jenna said defensively, making Vanessa grin and Jeremy snort under his breath as he walked to and fro from the kitchen.

"You kind of do Aunt Jenna," Jeremy called as he left the house, Jenna huffing under her breath. The older woman stopped for a moment and continued to fuss over her niece before she was forced to get ready for her own day, Elena taking over with the coddling as soon as she had left.

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay? I can stay if you want? Or I could call Caroline- or Matt- or-" Elena rambled, listing off everyone she could think of who would pull a sickie for her sister- Caroline couldn't miss first Cheer Practice, Matt had enough worrying to do about Vicki (however she was at the moment), Bonnie would stick with Elena and that was _fine_.

"Elena!" Vanessa cut her off with a smile, hugging her sister briefly. "I'll be fine, you act like I've never stayed home sick on my own."

Elena just sighed and hugged her once again, whispering that she hoped she felt better before Bonnie's car pulled up out front. Elena sped off after that and Jenna doing the same twenty minutes later. So she was sat there in the silence, just her, and ol' Spongebob Squarepants; she had to admit it was kind of weird without everyone in the house. But she had the whole house to herself now, which meant only one thing-

Movie marathon.

* * *

Vanessa had to admit- she was a bit peeved when Elena came flouncing home to announce that Jenna was staying over at the campus and Jeremy was down at the grill.

So of course, that meant she was inviting Bonnie and Stefan over and forcing the four of them into having a nice dinner. She was ill goddamnit, she was supposed to take mercy on her despite finding Vanessa drowning in popcorn and snoozing on the couch after her third film; the lack of sleep obviously getting to her at some point. Bonnie had been nice though and offered to do most of the work which Vanessa took her up on immediately- Bonnie was the nice one, she asked her how she was feeling, if she was doing any better.

_Stupid Elena_.

"You explain it. Last night, I'm watching Nine-o, a commercial breaks come on and I'm like, I bet it's that phone commercial. And sure enough, it's that guy and the girl with the bench, he flies to Paris and he flies back. They take a picture." Bonnie told them.

"Oh, come on. That commercial's on a constant loop." Elena denied, batting it away like it was nothing but Vanessa just pursed her lips in thought.

"Fine. Well, how about this? Today I'm obsessed with numbers. 3 numbers. I keep seeing 8, 14, and 22. How weird is that?" Bonnie asked, grasping at something to say that what was going on was kind of weird- for someone to tell her that this wasn't normal.

"Maybe we should play the lottery." Elena said drily.

"Oh, Elena made a funny!" Vanessa stated with her eyes wide in sarcastic shock, Elena jabbing her in the rib with her bony elbow.

"Have you talked to your Grams?" Elena asked Bonnie, ignoring the groans of over-exaggerated pain which Vanessa was making.

"She's just gonna say it's because I'm a witch. I don't want to be a witch. Do you want to be a witch?" Bonnie asked Elena abruptly.

"I don't want to be a witch."

"I wanna be a witch." Vanessa told Bonnie with pleading eyes, Bonnie laughed at her- wiggling her fingers like Jack Sparrow (Vanessa swore there should have been a _Captain _in there somewhere) did. Elena rolled her eyes at the two of them, continuing on pouring the food she'd gotten from the Grill into the bowls she had taken out of the cupboard.

"I grant thee witch powers... And putting it in a nice bowl isn't fooling anybody." Bonnie said to Vanessa with a grin before turning around to face Elena.

"It was either that or Vanessa cooks." Elena stated simply as she put the rest of the food in the nicest bowls they had- the ones their mom got of their Gram'a and had to replace like a week later with almost exact replicas because Jeremy and Vanessa thought it would be hilarious to use them as drums. Cracking and shattering them completely.

"...I'd rather not die tonight." Bonnie said solemnly.

"Hey! I'm not... that, ba- yeah, okay. It's agreed that it should be illegal for me to cook." Vanessa muttered under her breath, all three of them shuddering at the remembrance at the time which she had tried to make a cake though it was raw completely on the insides and given them food poisoning for like a week. Then the time she had almost set the entire kitchen on fire and almost burnt the house down. Maybe the time she left, not one, not _two_ but _three_spoons in the microwave. It was totally agreed that she was never going to be a fiver star chef, she'd make a great poison expert though which was a career option she was seriously looking into.

"Ok, serving spoons. Where are the serving spoons?" Elena muttered to herself, looking slightly frazzled.

"Middle drawer on your left." Bonnie stated offhandedly all three of them glancing at each other in surprise when Elena opened it to find the serving spoons there. Elena was the queen of doubt though, living in the land of denial as she rolled her eyes once again- they seemed to be rolling a lot and Vanessa was beginning to think it was more of a medical condition.

"Ok, so you've been in this kitchen like a thousand times."

"Yeah, that's it."

"Burn the witch!" Vanessa hissed jokingly at Bonnie, jabbing her with a fork lightly. Bonnie swatted her away with a grin though that grin dropped when the doorbell rang. It felt very much like the call of doom to a very boring dinner, or it did to Vanessa; she wasn't exactly sure what Bonnie had _felt_ about Stefan, didn't really understand it but she wasn't going to argue with the girl. Creepy, omniscient, spacey, psychic things were getting more and more frequent around her.

"Ok, he's here. Don't be nervous. Just be your normal loving self." Elena said as she went to answer the door- leaving Vanessa and Bonnie alone in the kitchen with the delicious smelling food. Vanessa was half tempted to take a bite out of it beforehand but knew Bonnie would tattle on her.

"Dare you to be a complete bitch." Vanessa said to the other girl seriously, Bonnie gnawing her lip in thought before a devious smile crossed her lips.

"Twenty bucks?" She asked, shoving an open hand towards her.

"Deal." Vanessa nodded, digging into her jeans and pulling out the note- without hesitation, slapping it into her friends open palm. Bonnie took it for a moment before raising a finger with a thoughtful look upon her face.

"Birthday candles." She said randomly and Vanessa was about to ask her 'What the fuck?' when Bonnie grabbed the drawer handle; low and behold, there in the drawer there were a pack of birthday candles which Jenna had obviously misplaced since they always went with the cake decorations they stored in the bottom cupboard- so it wasn't like Bonnie could have seen them everyday.

"That's getting kind of weird Bon," Vanessa said as she walked around the kitchen island- trying to shake the weirdness that clung to Bonnie when it came to the whole psychic/witch thing she had going on.

"I know, I know-"

"You should talk to your Grams, your dad isn't here and you need to talk to someone about this." Vanessa said firmly, not giving Bonnie a chance to argue as she took a bowl of food and began to set it out at the dining table. The one they never used any more.

* * *

Dinner between the four of them- great idea... _not_.

"Did Tanner give you a hard time today?" Elena asked Stefan, trying desperately to break the awkward silence which hung around them. Vanessa wasn't bothered about it, it meant she could eat her food in silence and in peace. Food was good, food was her friend. Elena was stupid.

"Well, he let me on the team, so I must have done something right." Stefan said.

"Bonnie, you should have seen Stefan today. Tyler threw a ball right at him, and-"

"Yeah, I heard." Bonnie cut her off- Poor 'Lena, she seemed really excited with what she was about to say.

"Well I didn't." Vanessa huffed- though she really wanted to grin at Bonnie who was seriously making those twenty dollars worth it.

"I'll tell you later, Nessie," Elena said glumly before trying to shove Bonnie in Stefan's direction once again. Vanessa kind of felt a little left out of the loop, see this is what happens when you're ill. You miss _everything_. "Why don't you tell Stefan about your family?"

"Um, divorced. No mom. Live with my dad." Bonnie stated awkwardly, trying to stop Elena from forcing interaction between her and Stefan. Vanessa almost choked on her food as she fought back a laugh.

"Forget twenty dollars, I'll give you fifty if you keep this up." Vanessa muttered around her cup, Bonnie trying to smother her grin as she took another bite of her food.

"No, about the witches. Bonnie's family has a lineage of witches. It's really cool." Elena told Stefan who instantly perked up all of a sudden- Bonnie's nose wrinkled though. It wasn't like Bonnie wanted her best friend going round and telling people that she had Witch ancestors since she already got shtick because her Grams was apparently _crazy_.

"Cool isn't the word I'd use." Bonnie stated.

"Well, it's certainly interesting. I'm not too versed, but I do know that there's a history of Celtic druids that migrated here in the 1800s." Stefan said, though half of it was gobbly-de-gook to Vanessa. It genuinely sounded like he had memorised it from a textbook and it was already making her sleepy, Bonnie wasn't that impressed either though Vanessa wasn't sure if that was genuine or the twenty bucks talking for her.

"My family came by way of Salem."

"Really? Salem witches?" _Oh god_, he seemed excited about that for some reason.

"Yeah."

"I would say that's pretty cool."

"Really? Why?"

"Salem witches are heroic examples of individualism and nonconformity." Again, gobbly-de-gook. Vanessa barely understood any of that, maybe she was stupid? Oh god, what if Elena was rubbing off on her!? Horror flickered over her face for a moment at though, making Bonnie glance at her funnily.

"Yeah, they are." Bonnie said with a smile towards Stefan, Vanessa would have to ask for that twenty bucks back.

Then... the doorbell rung. Quite dramatic and everything.

"I wonder who that could be." Elena stated as she got up from the table, leaving the three of them sat there in an awkward silence which was quickly becoming a bit too much for Vanessa; who stood up from her chair with a sheepish look.

"I'm going to- go have a look." Vanessa said awkwardly, chuckling under her breath at the imploring look which Bonnie sent her way- somewhere between '_Don't leave me alone with this guy_' and '_I will kill you in your sleep_'. Vanessa left her any ways, sliding into the hallways on her socks just as Elena opened the door to reveal Caroline and Damon.

"Surprise! Bonnie said you were doing dinner, so we brought dessert." Yeah, but did she have to bring _him_?

"Did you bring me cake?" Vanessa asked, perking up as she hugged Caroline- the blonde just shoved the dessert towards her. Vanessa grinned at the banoffee pie that was begging for her attention. In fact, she danced. She spun around in a little circle before running to the kitchen with a gleeful giggle that made Elena blush in embarrassment though Caroline didn't even bat an eyelash at her friends behaviour. It was rather tame in comparison to what she would have done if she had gotten her a banoffee pie _and_ a tub of Cookie Dough ice cream.

"Hope you don't mind." Damon said with a smile, a smile which only grew as Stefan came out to stand by Elena.

"What are you doing here?" He asked his brother tersely.

"_Bonnie! Bonnie look! Banofee!_" They head Vanessa crow loudly, no doubt rejoining Bonnie at the table.

"_Should you be allowed knives like that?_" Bonnie's worried voice came through, making Elena bite her lip.

"_Touch the pie and die, Bon-Bon!_" Vanessa hissed in the background.

"Waiting for Elena to invite me in." Damon carried on as if the little interference had never happened, his smile crooked and his eyes devious as he watched Stefan with cruel eyes. He was enjoying this a little bit too much, might as well savour the moment.

"Oh, yeah, you can..."

"No, no, no. He can't, uh... he can't stay. Can you, Damon?" Stefan said imploringly, as if his brother would _ever_ go along with what he was saying.

"Get in here." Caroline said.

"We're just... finishing up." Stefan stated, doing everything he could to drive his brother away but he knew that it was damn near impossible without making a dick of himself; and that was the last thing he wanted to do in front of Elena and Damon knew it.

"It's fine. Just come on in." Elena said, finally inviting him in. Damon made a big show of crossing the threshold, much to Stefan's annoyance.

"You have a beautiful home, Elena." Damon said though his smug smile was more directed towards Stefan than anything.

"Thank you."

* * *

"I cannot believe that Mr. Tanner let you on the team. Tyler must be seething. But good for you. Go for it." Caroline said with an encouraging smile as she sat in her armchair in the living room.

"That's what I always tell him. You have to engage. You can't just sit there and wait for life to come to you. You have to go get it." playing the part of the supportive older brother, Vanessa watched him balefully- a gaze which he caught, sending her a wink which she physically recoiled at in disgust.

"Yeah, Elena wasn't so lucky today." caroline said, her gaze turning on the girl with a innocent smile "It's only because you missed summer camp, you could have joined in with mine and Nessie's practices too y'know? God, I don't know how you're ever going to learn the routines."

"I'll work with her. She'll get it." Bonnie said encouragingly to Elena.

"I guess we can put her in the back." Caroline said, a bit rudely in Vanessa's opinion as her brow pulled together in a frown both she and Bonnie shared. Was Caroline PMS-ing? Did someone mess up her wardrobe again? Did she not have enough of her herbal tea this morning? Vanessa wasn't sure what the reason but she was kind of... bitchy at the moment. More so than usual actually.

"You know, you don't seem like the cheerleader type, Elena." Damon stated, and what type did she seem like? Vanessa thought to herself as she rolled her eyes, noticing Stefan's smile smile as he watched her behaviour around his older brother. Slightly thankful that not everyone was falling for it.

"Oh, it's just 'cause her parents died. Yeah, I mean, she's just totally going through a blah phase. She used to be way more fun. And I say that with complete sensitivity." Caroline said callously, making both Elena and Vanessa bristle. Bonnie placed a hand over Elena's in worry but the girl just smiled at her whilst Vanessa swirled her drink, her lips pursed in a spark of anger which not many had seen before- well, never directed towards Caroline at least and the girl seemed to be surprised when Vanessa sent her a cold look.

"Caroline, you're being kind of a bitch right now." Vanessa said stalely, getting a glare from Caroline but she didn't move about it. Instead she returned her friends glare with an arched eyebrow as she took a drink from her cup- a look that Bonnie was surprised that Caroline backed down from but then again, no one really fought Vanessa when she put her foot down. She was very laid-back but when she argued... well no one knew what happened when Vanessa argued. There had once been a rumour that the last person she'd had an argument with, mysteriously disappeared.

"I'm sorry, Elena. I know what it's like to lose both your parents. In fact, Stefan and I have watched almost every single person we've ever cared about die." Yeah, that's something you hear every day, said as if the sky was blue and the grass was green, oh yeah we had to watch everyone we loved die as well but no biggie.

"We don't need to get into that right now, Damon." Stefan said, obviously trying to deflect whatever issue Damon was trying to force into the conversation. The more he spoke, the more Vanessa really didn't like him- and he didn't start out with plus points in the first place.

"Oh, you know what, you're right, Stef. I'm sorry. The last thing I wanted to do was bring _her_ up. Mmm."

Vanessa rolled her eyes as she took another sip of her drink, wishing it was vodka and trying to refrain from throwing the glass at the douche.

* * *

Vanessa quietly helped Elena load the dishwasher as she grabbed the bowls from the side and popped them in- Damon coming in at the last minute with a glass in his hand.

"One more."

"Oh, thank you." Elena said because Vanessa sure as hell wasn't going to say it. Though when Damon went to hand it to Elena, he dropped it- Vanessa awaited to hear the shatter only for Damon to grab it before it hit the floor. A sigh of relief coming from Elena.

"Nice save." She said kindly.

"I like you. You know how to laugh. And you make Stefan smile, which is something I haven't seen in a very long time." Oh, so he was back at this again? the constant nudging about his brothers ex-girlfriend? Please, he could at least change his technique a bit. So old-school, so predictable. It made Vanessa roll her eyes as she went to grab another glass and pour herself what seemed to be her seventh glass of orange juice that day. Maybe it was just her illness drink?

"Earlier, did you mean... Katherine?" Elena asked quietly.

"Mm-hmm, both her and her sister Kristina." So now there was a sister?

"How did they die?" Elena asked, kind of insensitively in Vanessa's opinion. but no one seemed to care about her opinion at that moment in time.

"In a fire."

"Recently?"

"It seems like it was yesterday."

"What were they like?"

"Katherine was beautiful. A lot like you in that department. She was also very complicated and selfish and at times not very kind, but very sexy and seductive."

"So which one of you dated her first?" Oh! Elena! You have finally seen the light, Vanessa thought with a grin that she instantly hid behind her glass.

"Nicely deduced. Ask Stefan. I'm sure his answer differs from mine. I'd quit cheerleading if I were you." he said, inadvertently (or maybe intentionally, Vanessa didn't know how his mind worked) avoiding the topic of Katherine's sister- Vanessa noticed.

"Why do you say that?" Elena asked with a confused frown.

"Oh, I saw you at practice. You looked miserable." Wait, he was at Cheer practice?

"You saw that?" Was she the only one who thought Damon being at cheer practice was like, uber creepy?

"Am I wrong?" Apparently so.

"I used to love it. It was fun. Things are different this year. Everything that used to matter doesn't anymore."

"So don't let it. Quit, move on. Problem solved. Ta-da."

"Some things could matter again."

"Maybe. But... seems a little unrealistic to me." Damon stated, yeah well, who cares what Damon thought?

"I'm sorry. About Katherine, and Kristina. You lost her, too." Elena said quietly, ever the nice one. God, maybe Vanessa got all the bitchiness? Like a bitchy Jesus or something? That thought made her nose crinkle in amusement as she kept her laughter to herself, didn't want anyone to think she was crazy now did she?

"Hey. Need some help?" Bonnie asked, Vanessa could kiss the girl but that would just spur on rumours about her sexuality once again, interrupting them though it seemed like a very Damon & Elena conversation in the first place. Vanessa was just there- stood there awkwardly and unsure of what to do.

"Sure, why not?" Damon said cheerily.

* * *

"You feeling better?" Caroline asked Vanessa as she jogged up to start stretching with the other cheer leaders for the football game, Vanessa blanking her completely though as she slipped down into the splits and started stretching her legs like usual. Caroline sighed under her breath "Are you still mad at me for what I said last night?"

"No, I'm just going through a _blah_ phase, right?" Vanessa said to her monotonously "You know, since my parents died, but you say it with the _utmost_ sensitivity right?"

"You know I didn't mean it like that." Caroline huffed, ready to stomp her foot and shake her pom poms in a tantrum as her words were thrown back in her face- and now that she looked over what she had actually said, it did sound _a little _harsh. Vanessa ignored her though and continued stretching, chatting quietly with Dana as she ignored Caroline. And nobody ignored Caroline Forbes, which was why Caroline also slipped down into the splits obnoxiously close to Vanessa in order to make her uncomfortable.

Vanessa didn't bat an eyelash though and continued to chat with Dana, even though the other girl gave Caroline a weird glance and paused in their conversation.

A minute ticked by before Caroline couldn't take it any more-

"I'm sorry okay!" Caroline huffed, standing up with her hands on her hips and her lips pulled in a pout. Vanessa glanced up at her with a grin, one that said she had gotten exactly what she wanted which only made Caroline pout worse. Vanessa simply carried on stretching, chatting with Dana as if nothing had happened though she began to include Caroline more into the conversation. She wasn't about to just ditch Dana for Caroline, that would be rude. Dana was nice, despite her tupperware meals she was still trying to shove towards Vanessa but she had good intentions.

They continued chatting until Caroline's eyes zoomed in on where Stefan and Elena were stood- Elena who wasn't in uniform. Obviously having taken Damon's words to heart, Vanessa groaned because it just meant that her sister was going to suffer the wrath of Caroline. And she really didn't want that right at that moment. So she got up from the ground and followed Caroline when she made her way over to Elena.

"And you're not in uniform because..." Caroline said to Elena expectantly.

"Care, give her a break," Vanessa said with a sigh, already in her uniform and kind of dreading it.

"Hey, babe. What's wrong?" Vanessa heard Vicki ask.

"Nothing." Dick replied.

"And the central high lions are what's for dinner!" tanner was trying to give a speech apparently, not that she was listening.

"Is that Jeremy?" Dick said as he started making over towards the younger boy, Vanessa pulling away from Caroline and jogging over to where they were.

"Wait, no! Ty! No." Vicki said as she tried to pull him away from the younger boy, Vanessa watching him with a glare.

"Oh, what do you care? Don't look so down. You can have her when I'm done." Vanessa's eyes widened at his words and so did Vicki's but then Jeremy seemed to snap and punched him. the brawl beginning and Vanessa left floundering on what to do. A crowd surged around them and Vanessa was forced backwards on the outskirts.

"Tyler, stop it! Tyler! Tyler, stop! Stop it! Stop, you're hurting him!" Vicki screamed as the two boys continued to throw punches at one another even though Tyler obviously had the upper-hand, it just looked down right pathetic for Tyler though. To beat up someone younger and a lot weaker than him, Vicki was almost in tears. "Tyler! Tyler, stop! Tyler! Stop it! Tyler, stop!"

"Hey, he's down! Enough!" Vanessa heard Stefan yell but she couldn't see anything over the crowd, nobody was letting up. It was a fight, who wouldn't have wanted to see it?

"Jeremy, no!" She heard Elena cry out, c'mon! Elena had gotten through!? Seriously, this was starting to piss her off. using her elbows, Vanessa started to force people out of her way and ignored any sharp comments or glares she got for it.

"Tyler, knock it off! Stop!" Matt tried to intervene, pushing his friend away just as Vanessa broke through the crowd to see a hurt Jeremy.

"What the hell, Jeremy? Put your head up, you're bleeding." Elena said, trying to force his chin up only to have her hand batted away by Jeremy.

"I'm fine!" he hissed at her.

"Yeah, you smell fine." Elena stated drily, really? Vanessa stared at Elena incredulously, now? Now was the time to bring it up? When their little brother had gotten the shit kicked out of him?

"Just stop, ok?"

"Jer?" Vanessa called out to him, pushing her way in front of him.

"Don't start Vanessa," Jeremy hissed as he tried to push past her, only for her to grab his wrist. He pulled back with a snarl only to stop short when seeing her worried expression as she scanned his face; his busted nose, his swelling eye. Her hand coming up to poke at his cheek and jump back when he hissed in pain.

"Oh god- sorry Jer!" Vanessa said frantically.

"Nessie, it's fine," Jeremy said, reluctantly following her and even more reluctantly following her into the disabled toilets where she sat him down on the sink and started to mop him up with a damp tissue. there was silence for a moment and Jeremy appreciated the fact that Vanessa was more concerned about him than his habits at the moment. he half expected Elena to come barging in for a second round with him about it.

"I am going to kill him." Vanessa stated in fury as she tried to keep the tissue gentle on Jeremy's swelling cheek- mopping up the blood that had dribbled down his lip and chin. Tyler was going to get what was coming to him, whether Vanessa did it herself or she set someone one him. She couldn't decide whether to tell his mother or set a rabid Jenna on him. She decided she would do both, _the little shit deserved it_. Jeremy good see the anger though, the way vanessa was focusing too much on the task at hand, the way her free hand clenched and unclenched constantly, the way she gritted her teeth.

"Should I be genuinely worried?" Jeremy asked jokingly.

"He hurt you Jer," Vanessa said quietly "Over a _girl" _

_"Nessie_" Jeremy groaned, not really wanting to hash it out with his older sister over Vicki.

"I'm not going to say anything about her Jer," Vanessa stated, taking the tissue away and throwing it in the bin as they both just stood there. "But someday, you're gonna meet a girl who will treat you like you're supposed to be treated. I don't like Vicki, you're too good for her... then again, I'll probably never approve of anyone you date."

"Ditto."

"We agreed I'd be the lady with fifty cats." Vanessa said drily, smiling when Jeremy snickered as he left the toilets.

Vanessa stood there for a moment before leaving the toilets, probably going to go back and give Tyler a piece of her mind. Also a taste of her fists if she got lucky enough to take a swing at him- not that anyone would mind. He wasn't a well liked person in school any ways, his temper getting shorter and shorter lately and his douche levels rising. As she made to go around the corner though, there was a flicker in the corner of her eyes- turning around and looking over her shoulder, Vanessa didn't actually see anything. And she wasn't one to go chasing shadows- not after watching the horror movies she had. So she shook her head and turned around the corner-

Only to bump into someone.

It wasn't like a full on collide but enough to send Vanessa stumbling, the two of them grappling for each other as they steadied. Vanessa glanced at her feet with a sigh of relief- glancing up to apologize when her voice got caught in her throat. Because she was looking into her own eyes... and her own face, same eyes, same lips. Same face. The girl she bumped into seemed equally as shocked as they stood there, their arms dangling uselessly as they just... stared at one another in bafflement.

"Oh wow," The girl said softly, her own eyes drinking in Vanessa's figure and appearance and vice versa. Vanessa couldn't help but take a step backwards, the girl looked exactly like her if not for the clothes she wore and how she wore her hair. It was... really, _really_ freaky. "When they said there were so many people in the world who looked like you, I didn't realize that they meant look exactly like you."

"I know right," Vanessa commented, holding out her hand. "Vanessa Gilbert."

"Kristie Pierce." The girl- Kristie said with a soft smile. There was something sophisticated about her, though Vanessa was pretty sure that was because of the sensible heels and posh dress she wore. It was the way she spoke as well, softly but it commanded attention like Vanessa only wished she could.

"You new here?"

"Sort of," She said with a teasing smile, tilting her head to the side innocently but all it did was reveal a thick scar which ran along the side of her neck and under the sleeve of her jacket. Vanessa pretended not to see it though, didn't gawp at it openly like she was sure other people would have done if they had seen it- no she was polite to the new girl, which should have gotten her achievement in the first place. Kristie seemed nice enough though, a bit weird with the way she watched Vanessa. It was as if she was inspecting her for imperfections, for something to make them look dissimilar and seemed rather annoyed when she couldn't find what she was looking for.

Vanessa gnawed her lip as the awkward silence clung to them- what else was there to say to someone who looked exactly like you?

"What's it like in Mystic Falls? I've only been here a few days." Kristie asked with a smile, trying to prod the conversation along as Vanessa shrugged her shoulders.

"Usually it's a complete bore, we have festivals like every other day though," Vanessa stated candidly "The only good part is the parties that we usually have going on."

"I'm not really a party person actually," Kristie said with a sad smile, the two of them sent into another awkward silence at her admission. "You know, you remind me of someone."

"Beyoncé?" Vanessa asked with a grin, enjoying the fact that Kristie giggled softly.

"Of course," Kristie said good naturedly "No actually, you and my sister have a similar attitude. All about wit and sharp tongues. So very likeable, the two of you."

"She sounds like a great girl."

"Oh, the best," Kristie muttered bitterly under her breath much to Vanessa's confusion- Kristie only confused her more when she glanced back for a moment to check if anyone was coming; her eyes then meeting Vanessa's and instantly the new girls pupils widened as she focused upon her lookalikes eyes. "_You will not remember seeing me here, you left the bathroom but then remembered you left your phone in the toilets and spent time fixing your hair. You will not remember this conversation at all_."

When Vanessa blinked, there was a gust of wind that hit her face as she stared at the empty space in front of her.

Jeremy... had left, and so had she- right? Glancing down, she spotted her phone in her hand and grinned. That was it- plus now her hair looked as fabulous as it did before. Slowly she started walking back towards where she had left everyone, Caroline would probably be out of her mind with everything going on tonight- Tyler vs. Jeremy and all. She hoped Stefan was alright since Jer did actually slice his hand open with a bottle- _bad Jeremy, bad Jeremy- _she wondered if he could even play with his hand spliced open like that. Maybe he needed stitches and he was dying of blood loss-

"Somebody help!" She heard Matt shout, and she shot off as quick as a bat. hoping to god that it wasn't actually Stefan who had bled out because of her little brother.

She was kind of shocked to see the body of Mr. Tanner laid out on the tarmac, his throat torn out and looking very much like something out of the horror movies she had been watching as of late. In fact, she felt a bit queasy just looking at it- it was something to watch it on the TV but when it was laid at your feet in real life; now that, was something else entirely. She surged through the crowd, trying to find someone- Elena, Caroline- BONNIE! As soon as she spotted the smaller girl, she pushed past people and ignored their glares as she stopped just beside the girl. She didn't seem to notice though as she kept staring at something behind Mr. Tanner's... corpse.

"Bonnie?" Vanessa asked, watching as her eyes filled with tears and her jaw dropped slightly. Bonnie didn't say anything for a moment but she quietly turned around and wrapped her arms around Vanessa's waist- Vanessa froze for a moment but patted her friend on the back awkwardly. She and Bonnie had never actually hugged- like she said, Bonnie was more Elena's best friend than hers but she quickly got over that and wrapped her arms around Bonnie. her eyes darting to the scene before her; connecting the dots when she saw the three numbers Bonnie had been obsessing over.

She wrapped her arms tighter around the shaking girl, her brow coming together in a frown-

_Just what was going on in Mystic Falls?_

* * *

**God, I feel like I've just written a novel. Read & review my pretties- there is a poll for pairings on my profile if you would like a peak.**


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